Reasons Nos. 927 and 928 I need to leave this place:

No. 927: We had photos taken for our office IDs today. We came in, sat down at our computers, signed onto the system, and found a message: "Every staffer working tonight needs to go to human resources downstairs by 8 p.m. for their foto ID for their ID card, which is mandatory." Never mind the grammatical errors ("every staffer" is singular, "their" is plural; and while the ID card might be mandatory, it's really the photo that is mandatory - misplaced modifying phrase) written by a department head. While waiting downstairs while the photos were taken on a digital camera and loaded directly into the system, we chatted with the woman shooting them.

"How long until the cards are ready?"

"Oh, we're just about done."

"Really? How long have you been shooting these?"

"For about three weeks."

"Uh-huh. We only heard about them tonight."

"You're kidding."

No. 928: Kevin walks over and hands in his vacation request form to Greg, who does the scheduling for our department.

"Where'd you get this?" Greg asks, because our department hasn't been given its forms yet to fill out.

"I copied Michelle's," Kevin says, referring to his wife, who works in another department. "They've had theirs for a week."

It's Jan. 24 and we've yet to receive our vacation request forms. I had to go to Greg to get March 2-4 for the New Orleans trip.

Things are just not run the right way around here. There are so many ways, and I'm not going to go into them all. I hate to be too negative or bitch too much here, because someday I'm going to be working in a job I love and with bosses I respect (just maybe), and I won't want to come back to all this bullshit.

The thing that gets me is that I know there are jobs out there, I know I'm qualified for them, but I can't seem to get the damn employers to get back to me. Are my cover letters horrible? Is my resume not that spectacular? I didn't expect to get the MTV writing job, but I mean, c'mon, I have all the experience and qualifications they were looking for. Isn't that worth a phone call? A phone interview at least? How many people can seriously be jumping at an opportunity to work for a medical magazine in Cranford? I'd be happy right now with an interview. I know the job market's picking up, now that we're in the new year. I can tell just by the frequency of responses I'm getting to my search agents on the sites. Now why isn't the frequency of responses increasing?

Anyway, today was a dark and dreary day. It rained most of the morning and early afternoon, and since I was just loafing around the apartment watching TV, there was little need to put any lights on. So whenever I went to the bathroom, or when I went down to get the mail, the place seemed morose. It didn't bother me. It would've been a good day to lie around the entire day, not having to shower or anything, if I didn't have to come into work.

I haven't been to Ground Zero yet. I haven't felt the need, like many New Yorkers. But I don't have a reason not to, either. It's not like I'd make a trip to Oklahoma City to see the site of the former Murrah building, or I'd plan a trip around Eastern Europe to visit concentration camps. But if I were following the footsteps of my ancestors in Poland ... or when I get to Oklahoma, which I suspect may be the last of the 50 states I visit, I may stop by. Because they are historical sites, places that mark significant periods in human existence.

So maybe Monday, maybe before I go to the Garden to see Dave's company take on some other computer tech firm in a charity hockey game, I'll pick up another free ticket and go look at what, for the moment, might now be the world's most famous hole, knocking the Grand Canyon from the top spot.