These Are the People I Work With

Last week, I was speaking with one of my co-workers, who is filling in a maternity leave for a teacher. We were talking about her fears and nervousness, and she came up with the strategy of being "like a duck", and letting it roll off of her back, like water rolls off of a duck's. Someone even gave her a rubber duck to keep on her desk to remind her of this. This reminded me of a story of one of my previous co-workers.

I worked for many years with a very funny, sarcastic science teacher named Louise. Louise kept a plastic rat on her desk, which she would occasionaly make squeak in response to a complaint of some sort. One day, I finally asked her what that meant. She told me that when she squeaked the rat, it meant, "I don't give a rat's ass". This always made me laugh. Louise died a few years ago, from a brain tumor, but I always remembered her "rat's ass" story. I told my co-worker this, and said, "Maybe I need to get myself a rat; you have your duck to focus on; I'll have my rat."

This morning, said co-worker came in with a present for me. Inside the bag was a Beanie Baby rat. She sits very happily on the windowsill in my office with my eagle and Winnie the Pooh.

Of course, the rat's name is Louise.