officemates

Metaphor premise: Coffeemate is made for coffee. It is delicious, creamy and varies in multidimensional flavors that accommodate coffee addicts and coffee virgins alike. Now, I can't decide if it is because of the actual content that contributes to this aura of "made for coffee" or simply because of a well designed brand concept. However, regardless of all that fluff I concur with anyone who claims that coffeemate is made for coffee. Now you cannot, by any means, use coffeemate for anything else. It does not become a glass milk under any circumstance! Nor will it go well with cereal, eggs, or baking. Period. No exceptions. Coffeemate is meant for coffee.

Real world relevance: Are then officemates only made for the office too?
What if some how during the process of working together, you also get to know one another? And then once you know this person, you begin to like him/her (no specifics here)? Does the officemate transfer well to a lunchmate, or dinnermate (it rhymes with dinnerdate!), or what about then a roommate, tennismate, playmate.... or simply a mate. The mate.

Personal spin: I write off so many people if the answer were to be consistent with my coffee mate analysis. Deloitte is one of the largest professional services firm in the world. It is well known according to Wikipedia as one of the Big Four Accounting Firms, and certainly with a number such as 165,000 employees all around the world, I am not setting myself up for good odds.

Rewind to trigger: What really triggered this entirely useless mental exercise and unconventional style of introspection is a sequence of completely unrelated events bound by a single common denominator: work. Saturday night: I went out to dinner with a colleague, who I would much rather prefer to call friend because she is probably my favorite Business Analysts in my start class. I got to finally meet her boyfriend on Saturday; it is always nice to put a face with the stories. This colleague and I have never been short of stories to tell one another, and so much that it feels like we've always known each other.

Last week: I asked another workmate about great places to go to in North Carolina. we shared in the duke vs. unc rivalry and talked about what we missed and didn't miss of the good ole south. shared experiences often make for good conversations. after we made some tentative plans of meeting up in NC next weekend, i remembered how I almost went to an orioles game with him.

Since the start of project: my SC is pretty great. we share a similar cultural background and intriguing conversations about politics and society.Then of course, the recurring run-ins: the water cooler guy. I have no idea what his name is. but he is certainly easy on the eyes.

And then today: I work out of the 12th st. office along which the entire hallways are semi-open cubicles for administrative/secretarial position type people. They are great to know because they can help you with just about anything. Hoteling, restaurant selections, expense reports, mailing supplies, nearest restroom/coffee room/elevators...all of the essentials to familiarizing yourself to a building.

Now, there is this guy who I'd guess is about mid to late 20's. So, young. Has Lee as his last name; sits along the hallway and has his name painted in one of those tacky asian watercolor art drawings done by asian burnout artists on the streets of new york. But, this guy looks ethnically African American. I don't find many black men attractive. nothing racisit about it really, it's only because I wasn't friends with many growing up. But i will agree with anyone that says will smith, denzel Washington, and of course one of my few black guy friends growing up, Joe Mponzi attractive. anyway, back to this secretary guy. every time I walked by, I could not turn my eyes away from him. not because he was incredibly gorgeous or anything, but mainly because I was inquisitive. i wanted to know his story. does he have an Asian heritage? and is that why is so good looking? After walking by his cubicle, to get to the bathroom, coffee room, elevators...etc. etc., (never deliberately, of course) I finally worked up the guts to talk to him.

Workmates or colleagues or just people who work in your office are quite fun. For now though, I will have to remain with my original conviction that they are meant for work. It's great sharing a cup of coffee on break with a workmate during work hours. It's really nice hearing about some one's life too. But had I overstepped my boundaries and asked this secretary guy on a date, it would have been disastrous. If things didn't go well, he could tell all the other secretaries and they'd all boycott me and refuse to give me directions around the building!


Conclusion: So work and coffee do belong in the same category in regards to mates!