What to do?

Don't you just loathe those days at work when there's little to do?

You've recovered from the last manic phase and now you're waiting for other people to do their bit before the next wave of hysterical deadlines hits. Yet you still have to sit there, unable to find anything to make the day pass at more than a snail's pace.

You've tidied up all your email folders in Outlook and deleted all the temporary folders and files in "My Documents". You've got rid of the icons you don't use from your computer's desktop. Your desk is amazingly clear as you've sorted through and filed away all those piles of papers from a couple of months back. You've even blown the bits out of your keyboard. Eugh - how disgusting was that?!

You started eating your packed lunch at 9:15am and by 10:45am it's all gone. No matter how often you open that allocated food drawer for the rest of today nothing else magically appears inside. Unless you go shopping at lunchtime and buy another lunch and a mountain of goodies to last the afternoon.

If you drink any more tea/coffee/water you'll burst. You've filled up the office kettle and cleaned up the spilled sugar, dissolved coffee granules, and used tea bags around it. You've washed up the mugs and spoons left in the sink, and taken out the empty milk bottles.

Knitting or crochet is obviously out of the question, as you're blatantly not working. Web surfing is forbidden unless you want to spend all day reading about other people's work on the intranet. Crafty sites are a no-no thanks to the core-hours web monitoring and subsequent
wrist-slapping for spending too much network resource accessing non-work-related materials.

You've discussed last weekend's activities and next weekend's plans with your colleagues. You've printed out a world map and passed it around the office marking off where everyone's visited. You've stared out of the window lamenting how glorious it looks out there whilst you're stuck in here. And it's still only 10 minutes later. Has your watch gone backwards since you last checked it?

You've tidied out your handbag, so at least the cleaner's got a bin to empty now. You've synchronised all the important (birthday/anniversary/holiday) dates between your Outlook calendar and paper diary, and worked out how long it's been since your last haircut. You've made a list of all the cards and presents you need to buy in the next 3 months. You've started a Christmas spreadsheet with gift ideas for all your cousins and their families, but now you need to do some web-window-shopping to get more inspiration - but it's not lunchtime
yet.

Reading anything interesting is almost impossible if your boss shares or visits your office. You can guarantee that they'll need to speak to you the moment you open the latest issue of Interweave Knits, and it's just too big to fit inside the covers of "Computer Weekly" now that the compact version is out. Or you'll get so engrossed in the latest Harmony stitch guide from Erika Knight that you won't notice them lurking by your side until they clear their throat, then you'll slam your fingers in the book and go red with embarrassment and pain.

So all that's left is to dream of the week's worth of knitting you want to get done that evening and compile a blog entry to email to yourself during that long-awaited lunch break. Now for the afternoon.