When Linda and I reached the last cubicle, I was so-o-o- mentally
exhausted. Linda said it would take a while before I knew everyone by name. “But,”
she added smiling as if reading my thoughts, “But time flies, and besides, nothing
is impossible in this life!”
I really liked her and I felt way more confident in her presence.
My only concern was whether I would ever learn as much as Linda did. I tried
not to get distracted by such thoughts because the more I thought about my new
career, the more scared I became. I did my best to stay focused and to repeat
over and over: yes, you can, you will learn, yes, you can, etc. It was like
self-hypnosis. In fact, this technique did help. Only one hour later I knew
pretty much everyone by name and half of the staff – by their position. Some
people were very peculiar, like Vanessa Duncan, the girl with big grey eyes, a
fine little mouth, and the perfectly white complexion of a porcelain doll. She
was director of the department of international trade shows. When Linda
introduced her to me, Vanessa only slightly nodded her head and gave me a
feeble, almost airy handshake with her small delicate hand. I guess, excitement
was not among Vanessa’s best qualities – she seemed to be afraid that a single
emotion would harm her poised beauty. For my own reference, I called her “The
pretty department.”J
Then there was Rich Gustavsson. Before I saw him, I
heard an angry voice coming from the conference room: “No, no, no! I said I
know nothing! I don’t understand, no comprendo, Ich verstehe nicht!” It took
Linda a while to catch Rich’s attention because he couldn’t stop being angry about…
everything. He yelled: “Where for Pete’s sake is my Blackberry? Who took it I
am asking? Donde es mi Blackberry?! Wo ist mein Blackberry?!” Then he caught a
glimpse of Linda and yelled at her without paying any attention to me: “Get
this, Linda! All Blackberries are being checked by our computer people because
apparently there is something wrong with the AFM international phone reception.
Everyone knows about this but me! Great!”
I just stood there wondering what I should do to
make him look at me and maybe get a bit more polite…
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