yawn, blink...blink...yawn...

Rather than dwell on my neverending exhaustion and the fact that I've had 500,000 migraines in the past 3 weeks, I'm going to talk about someone other than myself.

There is only one wall in my cubicle that I have to share with someone else. My neighbor is a beautiful twenty-something Muslim girl. She has been one of my favorite student workers for a few reasons:

• rather than crappy pop music, she listens to BBC radio.
• she's always quiet and polite
• she's older, and just seems less like a freshman in college (read: is less annoying).

Anyway, she basically talks on the phone for 6 hours a day. I have no speakers on my computer and cannot help but hear her conversations. I have learned so much from her conversations. Seriously - no joke.

Today I learned all about the flaws she sees in her particular family's approach to marriage. I guess somebody she's related to (or knows?) got engaged after just meeting someone. The girl ended up calling if off after the engagement party and now everyone refers to the girl as the "divorced one." After hearing the conversation it's clear that they still have something approximating arranged marriage...which is so foreign to me. It sounds like my co-worker is battling with her parents over marriage all the time.

I have also learned how awfully bigoted Americans can be. I guess some man refused to sit next to her on an airplane once. Isn't that awful? I mean...let's say he is a dumb ass and assumes all women/men in Muslim garb are going to blow up/crash planes. Moving seats...not going to save him. All I know is that my co-worker was mortified by the event...can you imagine someone refusing to sit next to you on a plane? Argh.

So this job...sure I'm gaining computer experience (I have learned that I don't want to be in data maintenance) but I'm also taking a tiny step out of my sheltered, suburban world....even if I am doing it vicariously through a girl's phone conversations (maybe that makes me creepy?).

New goal: no migraines for the rest of August. Let's make this happen!