Marie got her job with the Building Department straight out of college. She wasn’t much of a student and her Mom warned her that going to a four year school would amount to nothing more than flushing her cash down the toilet. Two years would suffice, thank you very much. But Marie loved her college years. Not for what she learned in the classroom, but for what she saw, felt and did at night and on weekends, like she had finally drank deeply from the “chalice” (a good college show-off word) labeled “life experience”.

The first year she worked at the Building Department she went through four pair of fancy shoes all the while lobbying her bosses (all guys) to please reconsider the dress code. She also tried to bolster the vague intangibles of her work life that today might be called office culture. She put out bowls of candy at Halloween and Christmas. She made sure that the office team celebrated milestones like birthdays with a sheet cake.

Four years later, Marie has settled nicely into her job. She’s handed over the role of birthday captain to the unsuspecting newbie who was hired to work the front desk. The only decorating she now does is for Halloween, which still thrills her for reasons that have nothing to do with candy. And while her hunt for comfortable dress shoes still remains expensive and elusive, her mood grows increasingly brighter. Perhaps it has something to do with Cute Mike’s recent trouble with the permitting process. And that each time he swings by the office he brings her a little sweet something to pass the time while she dutifully processes the permit requests that his wife has completed. After all, Mike explains with a smile that shows off his cute dimples, she has the more legible handwriting of the two.