Friday, November 7, 2008

The Cheeto Under My Desk

About two months ago I had a craving for something artificial in both taste and color so I decided to indulge in a bag of Cheetos, one of my favorite snack foods. Now because of their delicious, yet dirty, neon coating I am careful about how I eat them so I don’t get orange goop all over my keyboard. So I cut the top of the bag off and then down the middle so I can reach in and gingerly pluck each savory morsel out of the bag with minimum contamination.

Even with this method accidents still sometimes happen. The last time I was eating one I didn’t have a good grasp and dropped an inch long piece onto the floor where it took a bounce and landed amongst some cords under my desk. From where I sat, I could see it, clear as day. Why didn’t I pick it up? I’m not really sure but I can assume it was because if I was in the type of mood that I was eating Cheetos that I was also in the type of mood where I don’t want to use the energy or resources to pick things up off the ground.

So over the next several weeks I would occasionally look down and see the Cheeto, snug as a bug in a rug amongst the phone cord and power strip. (But still easily visible.)

It finally hit me today that this thing has been down there for nearly two months and hasn’t budged an inch. That means two things (1) we don’t have mice in my office and (2) our cleaning crew sucks. Apparently the people that come around at 5:46 PM every day just empty the garbage cans and that is it. At least at my old building they vacuumed. But here god only knows how dirty this place might be! (And I am in no way a clean freak. You should see my apartment.)

I had the urge to finally pick it up today but then thought better of it. This Cheeto is much more thought provoking where it lies than if I simply picked it up and threw it away. So stay tuned. I will provide updates.

~The Office Scribe

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