Office

          The noise cancelling machine drones on over head. It's the simple white noise of rushing air but every once in a while it conflicts with the rumble of the air conditioning and makes it hard to think sometimes. But it is effective enough to dull the conversations that pass between coworkers over the non-cubicled desks. An open floor plan with simple white planes for desks and matching gray and back chairs. Both with too many levers. Everything is adjustable and customizable but there is no guarantee that one will get the same desk day to day. It's a free for all for everyone who doesn't have their name magnetized to the long rectangular lockers that separate the rows.

          There are bright spots of color such as the traffic cone orange copy room or green and yellow cushioned file cabinets. But honestly that just serves to highlight the lack of personal objects that should be strewn about the side tables in a mark of territory. That isn't to say the rolling blocks aren't useful when one needs to grab a seat for a quick chat at someone's desk or that the change of scenery from the back of the room to the front of the room isn't nice, but sometimes having a home would be nicer.

          There are so many lights. The spot lights along the walkways, the florescents along the desks, the laptops and second monitors and phone screens brighten up each desk with their own patterns, the large pane windows that let in the natural light, shiny reflective surfaces that bounce around the collected light even further. It's hard to find shadows in the building. And when one does find them, they are full of the technological debris that comes with the miles and miles of cords and plugs that connect us all. 

          Phones ring sporadically during the day throughout the office. Only garnering attention if they aren't picked up after the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth... ring. Laughter follows inside jokes that not everyone in the room gets but will smile at anyways. People smile and nod to each other as they pass in the space between desks that serve as a hallway. The scent of food drifts across the open room as someone brings their lunch back from the microwave in the cafeteria area, but it's a pleasant break from all the steaming cups of coffee.

          Work gets done with the clacking of keys on the keyboard, the roar of the printer, the chatter on the phone, the scratch of pen on paper, with the clicking of the mouse on emails, and other office sounds. Everyone comes into the office with varying states of wakefulness and need for caffeine. Everyone is ready to shuffle off at the end of the day. Five days a week. Eight hours a day. Such is office life.