Arianna Georgi

I live across from a high school which as far as I can tell has no real plus side, but endless disadvantages.  Among these include the fact that I can’t really leave my house without being run down by parents dropping/picking kids up, I am constantly honked at when jogging around the neighborhood by people ten or more years younger than me, and my local CVS is constantly crowded with teenagers, lounging around and texting other teenagers who are probably also in the store.  Anyway, lately the biggest disadvantage is that when I come home I have to see two of these teenagers walking around, all in love with each other. 

                Basically, this started about two weeks ago.  Coming down my street I noticed two teenagers, some really tall girl and her dorky, slightly awkward boyfriend standing on my corner embracing.  I should mention that I come home at 3:45 in the afternoon.  This was the sort of embrace that you would normally expect to occur on ship docks before people ship out for a war, or in a romance movie when two lovers that haven’t seen each other for ten years are reunited and run across a field into each other’s arms.  It was not a 3:45pm embrace.  Crawling past them in my car, I gawked openly.  Their eyes were squinted, he was picking her slightly up of the ground.  It was ridiculous.  Maybe this is his last day of school before he goes to a juvenile detention center or something, I tried to justify, maybe they just took a pregnancy test and found out they are in the clear.  I wanted a reason that an embrace this passionate would occur less than a block from house in broad daylight.  I chalked it up to extenuating circumstances and left it at that. 

                But I saw them again the following Monday.  This time, they were walking hand and hand down the street.  The tall girl had her head thrown back in laughter.  She pretty much looked like she was laughing at the funniest thing in the world.  It was that kind of laughter.  They had their hands in each other’s back pockets.  Then I saw them again on Tuesday.  And then again on Wednesday.  On Friday they were sitting on top of the power box on the corner sharing an ice cream cone.  I don’t even know where you get an ice cream cone around here.  It was disgusting.  On the following Monday they were having some sort of play tickle fight with each other.  I was very close to throwing something from my car.

                The worst thing about these teenagers is that it doesn’t matter what time I leave, they still manage to be magically there on the corner, being in love.   I’ve tried stopping at the bank, running errands, taking alternate routes home.  I still manage to see them.   At this point I think it may be some sort of social experiment to infuriate me.  Like some eccentric billionaire arranged to quietly drive me mad by hiring two amorous teenagers to stand on my corner every single day being so crazy in love with each other that it makes me want to throw up.  They could also be ghosts or something, like in this Twighlight Zone episode I saw and vaguely remember where some lady was haunted and keep seeing some strange man on the corner waiting for the bus every single night and then when she asked about it, it turned out everyone on the bus had died in an accident or something.  Except if these kids are ghost, they are the least scary, most ridiculous daytime ghosts ever. 

                Look, I have no problem with people being in love… in theory.  I was an English major, I spent a lot of time reading about people in love doing ridiculous things, or betraying each other, or (in Jane Austen books mainly), pining silently away until someone noticed them.  The problem with these teenagers in that their love is that they look amazingly happy and it pisses me off.  I spent a lot of time in high school lying around and reading books and lamenting how much smarter and awesome I was than my peers.  Never once did I walk around eating ice cream and making out with a guy in over-sized shorts.  In fact I am 26 and I still haven’t done that.   I would like, just once, to walk by and see the girl sitting there with her arms crossed sulking while over-sized shorts boy talks to his friends, or the boy standing alone, looking forlorn and waiting for the bus.  Instead their teenage love is so blatant it’s overwhelming.  Witnessing it is the love equivalent of staring into the sun. 

I am sure some people will think I am jealous, but this isn’t really the case.  I have no desire to be a 16 year old in love and even if I did, I would never fall for a guy in over-sized shorts and I don’t really eat ice cream.  I just want those two teenager/ghost/hired to annoy my actors to do there being in love somewhere else.  Otherwise I may have to move.

This afternoon over here at work was looking pretty dull until about 10 minutes ago.  I had already watched this week’s episode of Pushing Daises on the ABC mini-player (which I am pretty sure was exclusively invented for people watching TV at work) and I had checked the weather for the weekend for about the 20th time in a row (which is boring in and of itself since I live in Southern California where “73 degrees and Sunny” could accurately describe the weather for the next 20 years).  Also, CNN.com didn’t have any headlines involving kittens saving their owners lives, sex scandals, or how chocolate can make you thin (just boring political stuff).

Fortunately, the afternoon became suddenly interesting when Maria our HR lady, who I share an office with, received a memo that we are officially NOT allowed to bring guns to work.  Now, for a long time I had wondered about whether or not my place of business would appreciate me bringing a loaded weapon in, but thanks to this memo I finally, definitively know!  Here’s what it has to say:

“Pursuant to the terms of your Lease, the landlord reserves the right to adopt rules and regulations for the office project as it deems reasonable and appropriate from time to time.”

Nice start, anti-work guns letter!  I like the fact that this letter refers to my office building as a project (that makes it sound way more high-tech, like I work for some sort of top secret spy center instead of in the basement of a building across from UTC).  Also, I like the awesome legal language. ”Pursuant” is a word I need to use more often.

“In order to enhance the safety and well-being of tenants and other occupants, it is important that firearms not be brought into the project.  Even unloaded weapons may, if observed, create the appearance of a threat and result in police intervention.  Accordingly, the following requirement shall henceforth be in effect and is adopted as a new rule in accordance with your Lease:”

Up until this point when I was first reading it I was thinking this letter was going to let me know about some new rule like “no parking in the firelanes” or something to do with window cleaning.  The weapons thing was sort of surprise.  Also surprising: the fact that this is a “new rule.”  In addition, I like that the letter goes the extra mile to let me know that it means all kinds of weapons (even unloaded ones).  This would seem to serve to prevent the following (inevitable) future conversation:

“You’re fired!  You brought a gun to work and waved it around!”

“But it was unloaded!  I thought that would be okay.”

“It created the appearance of a threat!”

I am sure there are some contexts in which people carrying a gun aren’t trying to create the “appearance of a threat” but I would think in the workplace is not one of them.

“Neither Tenant nor its employees, agents, contractors, invitees, or licensees shall bring any firearm, whether loaded or unloaded, into the Project at any time.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.”

So that’s the new rule, in bold no less!  NOBODY (even if your dad comes to take you out to lunch) can bring ANY (loaded or otherwise) weapons to work.  Although this letter is pretty funny, it’s also pretty disturbing.  In my experience, people don’t generally make rules this obvious unless someone breaks them.  For instance, I am pretty sure someone assumed common sense would tell someone “Do not drive with sunshade up” until someone did it and sued the sunshade company (resulting in me having to shake my head is disbelief every time I put it up in my car).  What necessitated us having a “Don’t bring guns to work” rule? 

Anyway, it’s scary/hillarious stuff to ponder for the next 40 minutes until I leave.