Insanity Gives Way To Productivity
I’ve been busier than ever in the last couple of weeks, staying at the office until 6 or 7:30 every evening, bringing work home and going at it again until midnight or 1 a.m. Most of this has been because of our office move. The crummy, dilapidated, poorly-maintained old building we’ve been leasing for the last four years is finally being kicked to the curb, and our entire company will be moving into a beautiful, upscale, just-built office tower that doubles as the headquarters for a local bank.
Being the art director and the company’s only competent graphics guy and marketing professional, I’ve been in charge of changing our address and phone number wherever it appears in print or online, submitting orders for postcards, crafting email blasts notifying our clients of the move, adding explanatory pages to our corporate website, and more. Additionally, we’ve had a “Secret Lumberg Project” come down from the CEO himself that took a great deal of my time and the time of two coworkers, neither of whom had the time to spare either. I’ve also been putting perhaps the most effort of all into prepping a dozen sales presentations for extremely large and important accounts that we hope to win in the near future—one of my colleagues is touring the northeast as we speak, pitching our services to such magazines as the AARP Magazine and Via/Westways, the AAA member publication.
But today, everything came to a climactic close—well, a climactic hiatus anyway—as our old office space began to be totally and completely dismantled.
This week, on top of our regular work, we all spent a lot of time packing boxes, emptying our desk drawers and sticking color-coded index cards on every piece of equipment that belongs to us (so nothing gets lost or misplaced during the move). Walking into our office in the last couple of days would have presented you with a pretty interesting sight—tons of empty desks and bare shelves, and the aisles between rows of cubicles stacked and packed full of boxes, sometimes piled higher than you.
A local moving company that specializes in office furniture and design arrived early this morning to begin disassembling desks and cubicles. By the time I showed up, they were already hard at work—and in just one hour, two-thirds of the entire office had been taken apart. The moving company brought a lot of guys, they were all really professional and worked crazy fast. I was really impressed.
Since my desk and computer were taken down and packed away by 9:30, I wrapped everything up and got approval to head home for the day. Tomorrow and Saturday I won’t be needed in the office at all, as there won’t be a functional office to go to, as the move will be in full swing by then. On Sunday, all employees have been advised to arrive between 1:00 and 4:00 to unpack and set up their things, and be ready to work on Monday. I’m going to go in at noon and get done early, then my wife and I are going out to dinner at Jason’s Deli and to see the new Kill Bill Volume II film that’s in theaters tomorrow.
Speaking of Kill Bill, after leaving the office this morning at 9:30, I dropped by the mall (just a mile down the road) and bought Volume I on DVD from Suncoast. Got a free poster, too. That was probably the last time I’d ever “drop by the mall” after leaving work, as I so often did, since it was so conveniently located to my office. I guess most of our snowbirds have officially gone back home by now, because there was nobody at that mall. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so empty. But then again, it was 10:00 on a Thursday morning.
On the way back home, I passed my wife on the main entry road of our community as she headed off to work, and we exchanged waves. The weather here is beautiful today, so as soon as I got home I opened all the windows and let the cool breeze fill the house. I brought home some additional work to do over the next couple of days, but I’ve already done it all in the last few hours, so that’s a relief. I’m leaving my work email web access open, in case I get any requests, but it won’t be long before the Exchange server is taken offline and moved to the new office, I’d think.
So, since I get to enjoy the weekend a day and a half early, I think I’ll just relax and catch up for all the ridiculous hours I’ve been working lately. I’ve got some email to get to, some games to play, and lots of junk on the TiVo hard drive to watch. Not to mention a car to wash.
By the way, I want to take another opportunity to thank my friends Pooch and Sparse for the Amazon gift certificate they sent me for my birthday! This will enable me to get the first season of Star Trek: Voyager on DVD. Although I have to admit I’m a bit less psyched about Voyager now, after Monday’s official announcement of another series arriving on DVD a bit later this year. But I’ll post a separate update about that in a moment. 
Categorized as Life