A couple years ago, I went to a trade show and came back with a bag full of toys. You know - companies order stuff with their names and logos and give it out so you'll keep it on your desk or play with it or whatever and see their name regularly. Things like pens or computer brushes or stress balls.
One of the things I got was this thing I can only call a bendy thingamabob, because I don't know what else to call it. It's sort of a flexible wire covered with rubber, and it serves no useful purpose except as something to play with. I am a person with a nervious habit where I always need something in my hands like a pen or a paper clip or a rubber band (I do try not to pick up rubber bands when other people are in the room, however, as there is always the chance that I will accidentally let go and shoot them in the eye). This bendy thingamabob is extra good at servicing this nervous habit.
Anyway, it's been sitting on my desk every since I got it. Until this morning when I walked in, when it was sitting on the shelf outside the office of the guy next to me (we all have shelves where we put files and other stuff). At first I thought maybe he had his own bendy thingamabob, and for some reason it was on the shelf, even though I had never seen it there before. But mine was missing from my desk, and it hadn't falling on the floor or behind my desk. So I'm pretty sure the one on this guy's shelf was mine.
So...how did it get there? Did he go in my office and take it? I doubt it, since if you're going to steal something from somebody's office, it's not likely you'd leave where they'd see it. I suppose maybe he could have borrowed it, but it's weird that he wouldn't walk the extra five steps and put it back.
One possibility is that somehow it ended up out in the hallway, and someone just picked it up and put it on the shelf, not knowing whose it was. But still...how did it get in the hallway, then? The only thing I can think of is that the guy who vaccuums took it from my desk and then left it out there. Normally, he comes around at about 9 or 9:30, and most days, I'm gone by then. I've had problems with him before, where he's thrown out stuff that's fallen on the floor. Very odd.
I'm glad the guy next door isn't here today, since it allowed me to steal it back without asking him, hey, did you steal my bendy thingamabob? Because that would be ridiculously lame. Of course, for me to take it back isn't stealing, strictly speaking, since it's, you know, mine, but still, it's weird because I wonder if he sees it on my desk, will he think I took it? And what if mine really is here somewhere, and I just didn't see it, and the one on the shelf really is his, and I really did steal it? That would certainly be embarrassing. And also, I need to find another adverb besides "really," because I really use it way too much, really.
By the way, am I in fucking junior high? Because this is possibly the stupidest thing ever to be worrying about.
Labels: bendy thingamabobs, mysteries, work
