Triumph

This is not a political post, for which I'm tremendously apologetic, but sometimes you need small things. Like, for context, today was (emotionally) a terrible day at work. No huge dramas or anything, just people in need. All morning. And then two calls in a row from people who mentioned that they'd been in the CBD on That Day. Now, I don't want people to stop talking to me - I have come to believe that a good part of my job is being a listening ear for people who might not have anyone else to talk to and are unwilling to or don't think their troubles are big enough to call a helpline specifically for the purpose. I have logged calls in the system with the subject "RESOLVED wanted to talk for a while". And I have actually learned that despite being an epic introvert with social phobia, I like talking to people! The framework of my job takes away a lot of the stress about it, which makes it a lot easier.

But you need small things.

One of those is that, at work, we take the www.stuff.co.nz daily trivia quiz. We have the scores written up on the whiteboard in the call room for the last few days. Last week I made a mediocre showing, coming up with 6/15 two days in a row.

The first question today asked the definition of the word "zephyr", a word I have loved for many years. And the rest followed that start. When I was done, I got up from my computer, walked over to the whiteboard, picked up the pen... and calmly wrote 14 under my initials*.

The year of the Rainbow Warrior bombing? The year of the Oklahoma bombing? The name of the man who did it? That quiz was made for me.

*[It does occur to me that once I get my name-change I'll have the same initials as a coworker, but seeing as this is a temporary job, however long a temporary, it's easier to just stick with the old one until we finish up.]