The Power of Ten

I grew up in a village, a small town that is not really so small. Not by rural standards, not like the little town of 200 people in Minnesota, where the library was open two days a week, where the entire grocery store would fit into the produce department of my current supermarket, where I saw bald eagles soaring nearly every day, and where when I forgot my pillow upon moving there, I could not buy one in town and had to wait until the weekend so I could drive to a bigger town 35 miles away. That was a small town.

There were over 300 people in my high school graduating class, so hometown is really more like medium, I guess. It is only a small town by big city standards. The tallest building is three or four stories, located at the four corners.

When I’ve moved out of state for various jobs, it was usually to more rural areas, to the north woods I love so much. Excepting of course Cape Cod, which is highly developed, but not in an urban sort of way. There are no sky scrapers, anyway. So my life has included very little experience with tall buildings. There seems to be a recurring theme, though, with those few “big” buildings I have frequented. It is starting to seem a little strange.

I spent my two first years of college living on the 10th floor of the dormitory. I spent a lot of time visiting my grandmother in the nursing home over the last few years; she lived on the 10th floor. And now I discovered that when my company moves downtown next month, my office will be on the 10th floor.

I am getting really excited about the move, although it seems a long ways off. The leaky ceiling in my current space is really getting bothersome. A bunch of stuff on a co-worker's desk was ruined, including the computer monitor. I spent several days shuffling around using other people’s computers, which really dampens productivity: use X’s PC, he won’t be in until 10 am; OK, now take this laptop and set up in Y’s office; oh, wait the laptop doesn’t have the program I need, now what? Ugh. The roofers have been there twice, but the issue isn’t really resolved. And everyone who’s seen the new place raves about how nice it is. I am told I will share a “huge” office with two other people, and that all our desks will face a large bank of windows.

I can’t wait... tenth floor, here I come!