I woke up this morning with Bill over me, softly asking if I was going to work. For a split second, I thought I had overslept but I hadn’t. Then he told me of a water main break when a couple of blocks away which meant for low water pressure if there was any water at all.

I shuffled through the apartment, doing what it is that I do. Jumped in the shower and there was water, normal pressure. Everything seemed fine even with helicopters overhead reporting on the morning shows.

These hundred year old pipes underground just keep breaking and no one can figure out why. I say this because once a year they seem to tear up the street in front of our building to replace something or install something that is more recent than one hundred years.

Today is Tuesday. It was almost a good day. I get an attendance list every morning and the report this morning was Verschlossene Matrone being out. It meant that the day would be easy going, no need to fear about getting stabbed or shot by der Putz mit Salmonellen.

La légumineuse didn’t seem to be around either. But she sometimes does that. It’s good to be Queen and I should know about that, shouldn’t I? Verschlossene Matrone did appear, much like eczema. The knot in my stomach appeared along with a sense of dread.

A lawyer and I had a nice conversation about how Verschlossene Matrone has so much to lose. So much to lose to perhaps test the boundaries. “Can I really call someone ‘bullshit’ and challenge them to a fight? And loudly yell it out so nearby workers can hear?”

Apparently it can.

Despite it’s progeny attending a quite expensive school would it be worth risking it all because someone you don’t like, exists? Der Verschlossene Matrone can do just that AND get away with it with absolutely no repercussions. It must be nice to be such a vile, evil queen. Intentional lowercase at that!

Dwell dwell dwell, I know but it is foremost in my mind and the potential threat is sometimes in front of me or hovering around my desk.

In all my years of working, almost 50 years, there has never been an occasion where a coworker threatened to fight me.

I did engage with some of the clients today. One gent, named Tommy Mazzola was a lot of fun. Eight years older and probably a right winger, still we connected. Mainly about the problems with today’s society, i.e. young people. He has kids and I don’t and he really unloaded on his daughter-in-law that he cannot stand.

He realized that it’s not his life and stands aside, biting his tongue. It was a fun chat though he was anxious to get out of there and I could certainly relate to that. Then there was Sheila and Allen. A couple from Brooklyn who were a little bit older than me but I can never really tell these days.

They weren’t as forthcoming as Tommy Mazzola but still, there was a connection that drew raised eyebrows when I replied to them coming from Brooklyn as coming from Long Island. I was busy engaging them and my break time approached but I was not going to leave them in the lurch.

Nothing would be lost if I left for my break a few minutes later and that was appreciated by one of the higher ups in this fine, fine organization.

That was typed with tongue firmly in cheek and middle fingers hunting and pecking on a keyboard, or la langue fermement dans la joue et les doigts du milieu chassent et picorent sur un clavier.