Random silliness

I have a sign on the outside of my office door that declares whether or not I'm in the room. You'd think this would be self-evident, except that the only times my door's open are when I'm either not here (I tend to leave my door open a crack when I leave temporarily, out of habit; I shared my old office with José, who preferred to keep the door locked at all times, so my recourse was either to leave the door open a crack when I left or keep my keys with me, and it was easier to forget my keys) or about to leave. So my supervisor asked me to put a sign on my door. Originally, this was a simple flip-sign, held in place by a piece of tape; when I was in, I'd flip it up, to the side of the paper that said "IN", and when I was out, I'd flip it down to the side that said "OUT".

This lasted about six months. Then I noticed one day that the tape was failing, that the tape hinge I'd made was coming apart, and that the paper itself was starting to tear. So I took it down and, since I had nothing else to do, I built a new sign. This one actually has a moving part, and I'm kind of proud of it; it consists of two pieces of paper, one of them with the edges folded inward to form slots along the top, bottom, and sides, and the other folded and taped so that it fits between the slots, with tabs cut out of either side. On one side of the base is written "IN"; on the other side is "OUT". The second piece of paper - the one that fits in the slots - moves back and forth (the tabs are so I can grab it more easily), and reveals one or the other of the location-words.

----------------
|      |-----| |
| IN  =|     |=|
|      |-----| |
----------------

----------------
| |-----|      |
|=|     |= OUT |
| |-----|      |
----------------

All of this leads up to an interesting quirk: even though I'm totally alone in the office, I know nobody cares or will even notice, and my supervisor is thirty or forty miles away, at home and in bed... I still change the sign when I leave and enter the room.

Status report

4:55 AM. On a normal day I'd be in the shower now. Instead I'm currently at work.

I'm actually finishing up what I need to get done, which is little short of a miracle at the moment. Also, the power is back on at my house (I can tell because the answering machine picks up when I call home), so I can pretty much go home when I'm done here. (Which won't be until my supervisor gets here, but.)

Things

First:

Happy birthday, ladyjaida!

Second:

The car is now officially a total loss; the total cost of the repairs required to get the car running again exceed the value of the car. So I'm just going to stop worrying and love the registration suspension. (No fines or points assessed; just means I can't drive the car until I get it fixed.

Third:

Why am I still awake? ;_;