In Praise of Administrative Assistants (and other Administrative Professionals)

We're pretty lucky in our little city-owned building. We are blessed with a transit hub, a public library, coffee franchise, and a small restaurant that serves really decent Taiwanese food.

The masterstroke, though, is the recent addition of the LIQUOR STORE. Does it get any better? It's a lifesaver.

Witness last Friday's exchange between me and the liquor store's Proprietress (has her Sommelier papers, even!):

Me: "Our admin. assistant is having a REALLY BAD DAY. She needs an emergency bottle of red."
Wine Goddess: (thoughtful look, hand on chin, finger taps face) "What's your price point?"
Me: "It's not so much about price point this time, it's more about, 'Calgon take me away.'"
Wine Goddess: "Follow me, I've got this little Cab..."

And the wheels of government were prevented from coming to a screeching halt. Whoever negotiated the lease deserves the Order of Canada. Come to think of it so does the Wine Goddess.

Our Admin. Assistant turns lead into gold. She keeps things moving in the office, makes sure we don't break too many financial rules, and screens-out the unfriendlies who try to make their way past reception.

She's equal parts paperwork wizard, intelligence officer, disciplinarian, and protector, with a heart as big as all get out, and no bullshit about her.

I made a card for her to go with the bottle of wine. It was all colourful groovy-girl 70s flowers on it, and on the outside it said,
"Just because..."

On the inside I wrote, "You frighten me. I'm sucking-up."

I did say there was no bullshit about her. And besides, she's got a degree in Clinical Psychology.

She laughed, by the way.

Thrown Speech

I was going to call my first blog entry "Inauguration Day", but that sounded too American for my Canadian sensibilities.

Don't get me wrong, I love my American cousins. In a way.

Um... in my Canadian way.

I'm a middle-aged, mid-career civil servant in a mid-sized Canadian city. I'm not sure what my blog is going to be; it might be part Dilbert, part The Rise And Fall Of Reginald Perrin. A mix of American cartoonery and British situation comedy is probably appropriate for my cultural context.

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the mind of that government employee you were able to get on the phone after busting through the voice mail barricade? Where does all that tax money go? What is a cheque req. anyway?

Welcome to the mundane!