As the Suits go on, all Common Courtesy is Lost

Does anybody work the week of the 4th? The only day this week that I came in contact with another employee here was Monday. Monday was one of the busiest days I've had around here in weeks. Then BOOM nothing! I am working a temporary job for Joe Corporate. I have been lucky enough to extend my stay here from the original two weeks to nearly 3 months. In the beginning it seemed as if I was this huge asset that they were glad to have around. I still get the glad you're here vibe, but that's only because I've been trying hard to keep this I'm really helping you guys out charade going. I swear, I work harder trying to convince them that I'm worth keeping on the clock for another few weeks than I do actually working. The problem is that there is not much for me to do. I am caught up. One of my duties is to document all of the group emails as they come in. Usually we get at least one email every 15 minutes or so. In the past 2 days I've been able to document 3. We received a couple others, but only because I initiated them by asking questions and instead of getting the responses that I hoped for, I received undocument-worthy responses.

I spent the majority of the day yesterday reading the archives of ElenaJoyce's blog at I'mSureIt'sFine. Some of her posts are so ridiculous that I catch myself doing one of those back of the throat laughs that sound like a bull frog or a cow starting to moo and then abruptly stopping. I constantly looked around to make sure nobody in the cubes around me was giving me the stink eye. Then again, why would they? They have much more distracting/annoying behaviors than I ever could. List of instances:

-as I typed that last sentence the cell phone of a guy 2 rows away rang. Not that big a deal usually but it gets pretty annoying when the ringer is set to Cingular's version of Salsa music at the highest volume possible.

-at the same time, the guy across from me felt the need to chomp away on what sounded like rock candy for a good half hour. This, of course, is a step up from the usual hunk of tobacco he keeps in his mouth. It's bad enough that he feels the need to dip for the majority of the workday, but to talk while it's in his mouth while either on the phone or to me in person is just disgusting. Did I mention the constant noise of his spit can as he sets it back on the desk? I could do without it.

-yesterday the guy kiddie corner from me spent nearly 10 minutes YELLING on the phone about somebody that just got arrested. I stopped flinching after I heard him yell "fuck" for the third time. When he's not pissed at delinquents, he's pissed at Walgreen's. I'm not sure how our company is related to Walgreen's in any way. Maybe he's been waiting for his prescription for the past month.

I work in the logistics department of a major publishing firm! I thought I left the disgusting coworkers behind at my old job at the Mom & Pop Car Repair Shop. At the time I thought my coworkers were extremely inappropriate for talking about their latest sexcapades and drinking binges. I would take that back any day! At least I could continue to do my work while listening to them go on about the Dirty Sanchez and Rusty Trombones. That never seemed to phase me, however, a guy munching on rocks can somehow rile me up to the point of wanting to scream. I'm starting to think I'm a little high strung or I am just pissed that everyone but me knew that it was jeans day today and they are all giving me looks because I am wearing a dress.

Update: while finishing that up, another guy's cell phone rang and somebody walked into my cube and took my other chair without asking. Fuckers.