"I imagine that certain animals have certain voices," my co-worker told me.
I blinked at her in bewilderment.
"You know, like a beaver speaks with a lisp," she said.
Somehow I was not surprised by the explanation. In fact, I was never surprised by Garlic Bread's explanations. How could one be surprised by a person who forwarded photos from her phone of her Daschund on a Wii Fit wearing a bandanna and wrist guard?
Garlic Bread, as Hubby calls her (for what reason I'm not sure. Some have also been known to call her Melba), also once told me she dreaded having to take photographs for the newspaper at any senior citizen homes. I was afraid to ask why, but I did anyhow.
"I'm always afraid one of them will die on me," she told me, with the most serious expression ever. I watched to see if the expression would change, like maybe she'd laugh and say "Just kidding," but she didn't laugh. She was dead serious.
On her desk was a bottle of Germ-X and each day in the winter, before she sat down to her computer, she wiped it down with a Clorox wipe to be sure the germs were removed.
She threw paperclips at her co-workers, made hats out of copier paper for anyone having a birthday, and demanded her co-workers exchange bizarre gifts on some made up holiday called "festivus" (one of our co-workers gave her a mint that had been sitting in her desk for several months as a gift.)
So does this really fit in with my Chime In suggestion to write about strange people you've known or worked with? Not exactly. She's not strange to me. In fact, we're very similar.
Neither of us can read about an illness without being concerned we might have it. We both love our animals (though she was bordering on strange when she posted that photograph of her dog with her boyfriend's hair draped around it's head so it looked like a rock-star puppy on her desktop), enjoy meeting new people, and have an infinity for chocolate. And, while she's more liberal in her political views, and me more conservative, we've seemed to keep our mouths shut pretty well respect those differences.
Recently Garlic Bread discovered my blog. I was leery of this since I sometimes ramble on about my job here. Not too mention I worry people who read my blog will suddenly realize I'm more of a lunatic than they thought. However, Garlic Bread and I have similar sense of humors, so she found much of the blog humorous (or maybe she is just humoring me because she actually thinks it is childish and a huge yawner).
Garlic Bread's last day at work was last Thursday. It was hard to see her go, knowing she'll be working at a health care facility and most likely "mentally contracting" all the diseases and conditions she is exposed to on a daily basis and knowing she won't walk in the door, "accidentally" bump my chair, point her finger in my face and say "Yeah! Your face!" while I sit and wonder "What?!"
(Good luck, Garlic Bread, if you're reading this. For all I know you've convinced yourself you have pleurisy and are wrapped up in a blanket with Frank and Bella).
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You still have time to Chime In! Either here, in the comments, or with a post of your own. Know someone, or worked with someone strange? Write a post and link it back here and let me know. I'll provide a list on Thursday to the posts. Laugh about it, make it serious, whatever you want. Just have fun with it! There will be a new topic on Thursday.
