Being a Grownup Is, Like, Sooo Boring

Does work cramp your style?

The backstory behind the laptop bag is that there is not enough space at my work for everyone. Just not enough room to put any more workstations - they already shrank the breakroom twice to make an office for a new training manager and installed a phone on what used to be a lunchtable, for the two new trainers the training manager hired. The lunch table is now their desk.

So when my work said to me, "We want to hire a new X so you no longer have to do X, because we want you to write Y and Z," they decided that since there was nowhere to put me, they would order a laptop for me, and allow me the freedom to work from home when I want to. Sweet deal, right? My home is clean and comfortable and has windows and ocean breeze - my workplace is kinda cramped and old and there's a decrepit tree in the lobby and a view of one of the two most dangerous streets in San Francisco, what with all the semi and bobtail truck traffic rushing by. So I happily took the laptop and the work-from-home option.

The IT manager handed me the laptop in the cardboard box it came in and said, "You can order a case. Not Prada, but pretty much whatever you want."

Stuff like that freaks me out. What's the dollar limit? My boss wants us to use common sense but to spend company money on good-quality stuff. She's no-nonsense. When I was choosing a chair last year, she told me to just go to Relax the Back and pick one. She said, "I don't know... a thousand dollars, maybe, but if you find one you like that's more, that's okay, too." Holy shit, I came from teaching at an inner city public school that had NOTHING; literally. (They handed me ten reams of paper at the beginning of the year and that was to last me the whole year. With 220 students! I spend hundreds of dollars a month on stuff I needed to teach with - paper, pens, chalk, books.) So at this job, when faced with choosing my own chair, I chose a yoga ball chair that was a mere $120.

I was similarly puzzled when faced with having to choose a laptop bag.
I wanted one of these velour Juicy Couture laptop sleeves but somehow knew I should choose something a lot more sedate, boring and utilitarian. This is how I ended up with a plain black Manhattan Portage laptop bag instead of pink velour Juicy Couture! Oh well, the bag is sturdy and tidy, and it is company property, after all. I pat myself on the back for being such a sensible (zzzzzz) employee.