Humor

It's amazing what a little humor can do to your life.  In my case, a lot of humor.  If I had to pick a theme  this week at work it would be laughter.

  When I first arrived at the IPO I sat at Stephanie's desk for 2 weeks, the front most one in the main IPO office. She was on vacation for 2 weeks.  For another 2 weeks or so I sat at a tiny desk awkwardly placed in the corner of the office.  Finally, I was given my very own office (the Colonel's old office) with 2 enormous desks, a huge shelving unit and a laptop computer.  It was nice, but it was big, plain, and lonely.  A few days later the 2 Ensigns took over it.  As I've alluded to previously, my friendship with the one Ensign (oddly from my half sister's home town of Waco, TX) started great and then by the time we were knee deep in orientation turned sour.  However, he became frustrating to work with through several people's eyes, not solely my own, as his disinterest in international programs and helping international students strained the effort we needed from him.  Almost immediately after orientation he took leave, not even saying goodbye.  Luckily, around that time we were assigned a 2nd LT (same situation, only he chose to enter the Marine Corp instead of the Navy and the ranking is different).  With a nickname of Buddy, it's nearly impossible not to love this guy, who married his long-time girlfriend before starting to work for us (and is conveniently from where I go to grad school).
   The 3 of us get along like a well oiled machine.  Not only do we work well together, and accomplish a tremendous amount of tasks, but we can laugh until the paint dries. Our office has become unrecognizable from the way it was when I entered the first day.  We now have a mini-fridge, an American flag, Marine Corp posters, maps, a Sri Lankan flag, and other random memorabilia we dug out of the old IPO closet.  We disassembled the book shelf (an activity my micromanaging director did not approve of), and rearranged the desks.  The funniest part? We have to restore it to it's plain condition in less than 2 weeks for a new professor who is moving in.  I'll be gone though, so have fun guys!
   Two days ago, we spent an afternoon making up a huge story about the Ensign.  A fictional novel about his travels to Ibiza, marriage to a gypsy wife, and epic fight on the Eiffel Tower.  I can't remember the last time I was entertained by something this ridiculous.  But I couldn't remember the last time I had laughed that hard- my stomach ached, my eyes were soaked with tears, and I could barely breath.  We had to close the door we were laughing so loudly. Buddy even typed it up, and thank God because that time needed to be immortalized somehow.