How the other half lives

Last week I had to drop off an envelope at another science building at LNFU and it was then that I realized two things: 1. I work in the dirty hippie building. 2. It is exactly the right place for me to be.

The other building is glass, outside and in. Office walls are made of glass lined with white stripes and some of them have formulas written all over them. What isn't glass is silver, from strips perfect for matchbox car fun between the banisters and the glass walls of the staircases, to a random spin bike in a hallway, to the two different kinds of espresso machines in the break areas, each of them extremely fancy.

In fact there were two extremely fancy ladies seated in one such break area, and when I went to admire the espresso machine they gave me the hairy eyeball. "I'm so jealous of your espresso machines," I said. They looked away. Now I was wearing shorts I bought at Target two years ago, one of three pairs I wear pretty much every week-but never the same pair twice in one week, thank you very much. I'm not a total schlub, not by a long shot. But I am definitely not post-modern sci-fi glamazon.

Which doesn't mean I'm not planning an espresso reconnaissance mission one of these days. Because I am a post-modern dirty hippie, and we like our espressos chic.