We Keep Weirdness Here

Today, I'm grateful for work. Well, I'm always grateful for work. But the people I work with are pretty darn funny. I won't try too hard to describe it because most of it is situational humor, which is all about timing and context. It's never funny when you try to tell someone else.

But we laugh a lot at work.

And I love working with other editors. The similar background and training means that many of us are familiar with the same kinds of things. It also means we're drawn to or at least can appreciate the same kinds of movies, books, etc. I don't think I've ever made an Oscar (the movie, not the award show) reference among relative strangers and actually had someone understand it. (Well okay, it happened once, and I then dated him for several months: you just can't pass up that kind of compatibility. (PS: I kid. Quoting Oscar was not the deciding factor in us dating. But it was a nice perk.)) But there is a whole handful of people here who know the movie without me having to show it to them first! Kindred spirits!

Here are some other things that my coworkers do or have that will probably remind you of me:

1. a Star Trek cookbook (and scans of the newspaper spotlight on the Harry Potter cookbook) and a knowledge of exactly what Tribbles are
2. blogs about editing
3. the ability to talk for hours about literary theory and archetypal patterns
4. pen fetishes (you know, the ones where you will tear apart a room looking for that generic Bic pen because it "just writes better" than all the other Bic pens)
5. well-annotated and partially memorized copies of the Chicago Manual of Style
6. a "Hobbit day," which is pretty much arbitrarily assigned based on whether one or more people feel like not wearing their shoes around the office that day
7. a willingness to share books---but only because we know that the borrower will be just as violently protective of the books as we are
8. a movie quote for every occasion (at least one person quotes a movie every few hours or so)
9. debates won by who can get to the most reliable information first
10. mutually shared love for warm fuzzy things, hot chocolate, colored pens, and books---preferably having all of the above at the same time
11. getting ridiculously giddy about discovering an obscure word meaning or grammar rule and then telling everyone else about it
12. any mention of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, J. R. R. Tolkien, or C. S. Lewis has the mysterious ability to draw at least three or four people out of their offices for a brief chat before returning to work---even if they're many feet down the hall or the door is shut

Honestly, this job is awesome. I've never met so many Lynnae-kind-of-nerds in the same place before! The sense of humor and witty banter is straight up my alley, too. There's a couple of men in my office that remind me so much of my dad in that way.

I really hope that this kind of employee-camaraderie isn't unique to the Church Magazines. It probably is. But the fact that we can throw a "Bad Candy Party" (which was really just code for a dessert potluck) and spend an hour playing Signs and whacking each other with a rolled up newspaper is just fantastic. It's nice to know that I don't have to get boring as I get older. Many of these people are twice my age.

So yes, I'm grateful for the people I work with. I have a lot of fun doing the work, and I have lot of fun working with the people. It's the best part of my life right now. :)