February 03, 2004
Late at the Office
Nothing particularly Balkan about this post, either. It's 11:30 at night, I'm still in the office. Doesn't happen that often, but then sometimes it does. I had a three-hour meeting that stretched to five hours, I got handed an extra assignment on short notice (Bechtel is coming to town. Make them happy), my deputy is working at half power because her son is sick, I got into a train crash situation with a couple of reports coming due one day apart. (Okay, that last one is my own fault.)
Here's something that has changed from my single days: I used to sort of like working late. I mean, not like like, but it was kinda cool having the whole office to myself. I could wander around in shorts and t-shirt, talk to myself, make pots of coffee just the way I liked them, noodle around online...
No more. Now I just want to finish up and go home. I miss my wife and kids. Also, "late" is a lot earlier than it used to be.
Okay, one Balkan thing. The office has a maid-cook-factotum: Carmen. Every morning, Carmen comes to the office early, an hour or more before the rest of us. She tidies up, empties the wastebaskets, and brews that crucial first pot. When I get in (much later), she's usually got a cup of hot coffee on my desk before I've read my first e-mail.
This is a subset of the general charming Balkan tradition of having either coffee or tea or mineral water served, rather formally, at every single meeting. I like this quite a bit, actually. (But it does require either a strong will or strong kidneys.)
Anyway. Carmen's coffee is -- whisper it -- not that great (Claudia's is better, of course), but there is something very nice and ceremonial about getting a cup of coffee handed to you right at the beginning of your work day.
Which, in this case, will be about nine hours from right now.
Off I go.
Posted by douglas at February 3, 2004 11:52 PMI know exactly what you mean. I used to love nights.
No more.
Posted by: kit at February 4, 2004 02:31 AMA small correction. It's actually "fac totul" -> factotul. :)
Nice blog by the way. It's really interesting to read an outsider's view on Romania. Count on me as a constant reader.
Posted by: János at February 5, 2004 11:39 PMUmmm... By outsider I obviously meant not a native Romanian.
Posted by: János at February 5, 2004 11:41 PMThat's actually pretty funny.
Does that word really exist in Romanian?
Claudia
Posted by: Claudia at February 6, 2004 04:02 PM
Factotul does not exist, the two separate words exist though. Fac = I / they do, totul = everything.
Posted by: János at February 6, 2004 10:12 PMHow interesting! "Factotum" is the _Latin_ word. And in Latin, it has the same meaning as Romanian _fac totul_: "the person who does everything (that nobody else does)".
In Latin, _fac_ is the imperative of _facere_, to do. (I'm not sure yet how imperatives work in Romanian.) _Totum_ of course is "all", as in the English word "total", or Romanian _tot_.
As adopted into English, "Factotum" means something like a general assistant. It's a slightly archaic word in American English today, though still used occasionally. I think it's more common in Britain.
Doug M.