@ the office

There's something unnerving about being alone in the office on a Friday evening. Maybe it's the fact that I'm free to wear my hair in an offensively spiky ponytail or that I can wear bathroom slippers around the office without judgment. It's very quiet, save for the sound of traffic outside my window and the soft humming of the printer next to me.

Of course I'm not really alone. The janitorial staff has yet to make its round on my floor (they tell me in broken English I work too much - I haven't the heart to tell them that I am just a bad procrastinator). And outside my window looms another glittery sky scraper, some of whose windows are still lit. I always have this vague feeling that people are still there, sitting at their computers, occasionally glancing over to my building and wondering if there are people here. I wonder if they can see me, with my offensively spiky ponytail and bathroom slippers. I wonder if any of them have binoculars.

I can't take credit for the binocular idea. I remember seeing an episode of NewsRadio where one employee was looking out his office window with binoculars. Coincidentally, another employee was simultaneously looking at him through her window with binoculars. Comedy ensued.

But really. I can't say I feel uninhibited enough to run around screaming my head off at the top of my lungs, though my boss has been known to do that once in a while. Perhaps the craziest thing I've done is have "a male guest" visit me late at night (the whole swooshing all the papers off the desk thing is fun, but it's a real pain to pick up everything afterwards). I could at least close the door for that. The second craziest thing is probably playing trance or rap music at full blast in my office late at night whilst typing up a brief. I think once, one of the building's security guards came up to investigate the noise, and upon seeing me in the hallway, a bespecled Asian girl in a spiky ponytail and bathroom slippers, went back downstairs.

But right now the office is very quiet. There's something unnerving about being alone in the office on a Friday evening.