Kuniko and I will both attend separate “bonenkai” parties tonight. This is the start of the season, and from here on we’ll be busy attending various parties and functions through December (and even January). Bonenkai means forgetting the previous year, and getting psyched up for the upcoming new year. It’s a good idea, actually. I like the idea of always moving forward, and dwelling too long on the past. The only problem is that there is a separate party for each one of your “groups” that you are a member of, and that means a lot of partying. The rest of the week should be pretty uneventful, which is a very good thing.
Yesterday at work I had a funny experience while working at a big company. I noticed that in my office, the carpet was getting a little dirty, since my students often come in to the classroom from the factory, trailing in little pieces of steel, plastic, and dirt. So I sent an email to the guy in charge of my class to casually ask if he could arrange to have the room cleaned maybe once every couple of weeks.
And then the gears started turning.
First, the guy called the cleaning crew and told them to put my room on the schedule for cleaning daily. They asked when it would be best to clean, and he told them to consult with me. At lunchtime I bumped into the person in charge of cleaning my room, and she asked about my class schedule. I explained it to her, and we soon found out that there really isn’t a great time that works for her schedule. She said she’d think about it. Then the security crew had to change the security level of the room, since the cleaning staff don’t have security passes for the rooms on my floor. So they have to change the procedure for my students to enter the room, and the staff created a printout explaining the new procedures to students entering my room. Since the room will be “open” from 8-6pm each day, they want to put my office under lock and key, so they are looking into finding a physical key to lock my office door. They’ll try to get me the key before the week is out.
All because I’ve got a dirty carpet.
Today will be interesting – a lot of stuff is happening, and I wonder when exactly the carpet will be vacuumed.
