New begginings

New beginnings are always awkward. Yesterday, “fresh meat” attended our Monday meetings as a newly-hired employee. Now, it wasn’t necessary that he had to stand in front to introduce himself to the group, so naturally somebody suggested it.

So he was talking about how he liked how informal the whole protocol in the office was and how he wished we all would get along, or in his own words, “get close” (Man, you couldn’t get gay-er than that).

I do think the casual and easy atmosphere in the office make it seem more like a boarding house than the stiff and reserved corporate organization that it is. Our old office in fact used to be our boarding house. We sleep, change, eat and defecate there. Well, not in the office. We had a toilet for that, err… shit.

Those were great times. We are all almost the same age, give or take 2-3 years. So mornings we go out for field work, go back to the office in the afternoon, play some games, chat and work at the same time. In the evening, while waiting for the boss to do his thing, we hook the Playstation on the TV then play into the night while some of us play some girl in the MIRC chatroom.  When we get bored, we went out to grab a few drinks then around 3 or 4 a.m. go to Bankerohan to eat breakfast before going back to the office to sleep. 

We woke up again at 8 a.m. to do some fieldwork and another cycle began.

Of course, that was when we were still young and stupid. Things have changed because most of us are now married AND stupid. Also, our new office is much more regimented on rules about computer games, chatting, and other “non-office” work. I guess they learned from experience not to give us too much rope with which to hang ourselves.

But the relaxed manner that we deal with each other is still there and I think that was fresh meat meant. Anyway, this post is about awkward beginnings so this is what happened.

FRESH MEAT: So, unta masabtan nako inyo batasan ug masabtan pud ninyo ako batasan.

ME: Unsa man diay imong batasan?

FRESH MEAT: ha, kuwan…
(Awkward pause as everybody waits for  his answer)

FRESH MEAT: Melancholic.

 Hahaha! How can you react to that? I wanted to say, “Hey, you have something in common with Mark, he’s also addicted to alcohol.”

But I held back because I think the wittiness of that reply will zoom past him and could even earn me an enemy.

Besides, I’m like Valium. Best taken in small dosages.