Office Move

As part of a major reorganization at work I just moved my office. It's still in the same building, but I had to pitch what I didn't need anymore, box up everything else, and then unpack and arrange the new place. (Same size, roughly the same layout.)

While unpacking I noticed I had all of the usual office stuff, but I'd also accumulated an interesting assortment of decorations, mementos, knickknacks, tools, toys, etc. over the past 20 years. Here's most everything, in no particular order, with apologies to Umberto Eco:

• Bank deposit slips and envelopes


• Teflon tape


• Wall hook shaped like a finger


• Baseballs (3, with one signed by my old department)


• Old magnetic door name plates (4)


• Multi-vitamins, aspirin, ibuprofen, eye drops, comb, band aids, contact lens case


• Small hand lotion bottles from hotels (5)


• A variety of business card holders. A metal one is engraved with my name and the saying "ZAPP!", and the desktop holder has an engraved brass plate with "JUST REMEMBER, TEMA IS THE ONLY PRODUCT!"


• Lava lamp


• Mensa "Puzzle of the day" calendar


• A collection of pocket protectors, plastic templates for drawing chemical processing vessels, and a slide rule. Really.


• A porcelain "saddle ring" from a distillation column


• A small vial with several blue glass chips in it, labeled "from g.l. portable agitator shaft 5/24/90 PJH"


• French-English dictionary


• Webster's dictionary, a prize from a high school TV quiz show I was on in 1978


• Dilbert books (5)


• Cheap sunglasses


• Hardhat, custom-painted with my name and a shamrock


• A coconut carved into a monkey, with wire glasses


• Geode bookends


• "Learn Japanese" audio CD set


• Fancy commemorative pens in cases (4)


• Red plastic mugs (2): "Industrial and Specialty Chemicals - Abbott Laboratories"


• Framed pictures on display (6)


• Glass desktop trophy with inscription in Chinese


• Glass desktop trophy with small clock, and an etched picture of the people who attended a certain meeting


• Door magnets (2) with the image of a brain, labeled "PROACT"


• Strunk & White's "Elements of Style"


• Eyeglass repair kit


• Empty drug product display bottle of Zyflo (zileuton)


• Headphones


• Tiny tool set: Screwdriver, crescent wrench, measuring tape


• Pocketknives (2)


• TAP tie pin


• Various management books (17)


• Mardi gras-type bead strings (2)


• Pictures from a team outing in 1999


• A bottle of the Korean soft drink "Yellow Life"


• A desk clock engraved for Abbott's 100-year anniversary in 1988


• Custom plaque from 1988 from Department 884 in building C-10, with a centrifuge and a pump


• Various small plastic signs from building C-10, removed before its demolition


• Books: "Just Enough German", "Culture Shock! Korea", "Berlitz Japan", "Astronomy 365 Days"


• Chemistry/engineering textbooks from the early '80's (10)


• Maps of: Macau, Hong Kong, Seoul, National Museum of Korea, Washington D.C., Eli Lilly facilities in Indianapolis, Mannheim (Germany), North Carolina, Newark, Madison, San Francisco, Puerto Rico, San Antonio (2), Frankfurt Airport, Burgenstock (Switzerland), Tokyo, Katsuyama (Japan), Osaka, Fukui, Osaka Castle. (I like maps.)


• A fake movie clapboard labeled "Project Office, Director Pat Harrigan, PBR, Take 2"


• Plant food and insect repellent


• Shamrock plant

I don't know what this all means -- I've never considered myself much of a pack rat, but that does seem like a lot of stuff. My office is still pretty tidy, though, so I suppose I've got room for the next 20 years...

Pat