A Spoonful of Sugar

A few nights ago, Stephen and I were working on our computers and we had the television on. (I use the term “working” very loosely as I’m sure I was blogging and he was randomly calling people on Skype.) In the background, Mary Poppins was on. They began singing the ever-so-popular “Spoonful of Sugar” song and as it was nearing it’s end, Stephen looked at me and said, “Wow. I never know that that song wasn’t actually talking about a spoon full of actual sugar. It’s a metaphor.” My husband is the King of Metaphors. Seriously. I often have to say, “No, don’t tell me a metaphor, just tell me what you’re trying to say.” So it put my in stitches when he said that. It’s happened to all of us though. You hear something as an adult that you haven’t heard since you were a child and all of a sudden, a lightbulb goes off. THAT’S what that means! 

What does that song actually mean then? Clearly they aren’t singing a song just to tell you that if you have something sweet with your meds, they are easier to take. (Although I think it should be noted that I once heard that if you swallow a spoonful of sugar, it helps your hiccups and I have yet to be proven wrong on that rumor.) The song actually means that a little bit of “good stuff” makes the “bad stuff” a bit more bearable.

Like work.

Work isn’t fun. There are very few people in this world who wake up every morning and are thrilled about going to their jobs. I really wish they’d emphasize this in college. “Major in something that you love to do!” Yeah, like that helps.

Anyways, we’ve talked about this before. I don’t hate my job. I used to, when I worked at the bank. But I don’t hate it anymore. I don’t enjoy waking up early. And I think I should get to go home when my work is complete. But other than that, I think my job is just fine and I’m thankful that someone wants to have me as an employee.

Last night we had our company Christmas party. That’s a spoonful of sugar. “I know you practically live at this office and you don’t have much vacation time, but we’d like to let you out a bit early today so you can go home and get dressed up for a nice dinner tonight. And here are two drink tickets.” And you know what? It was nice. We enjoyed ourselves. We happened to sit at a table with a few people I knew, and two employees I’d never actually had a conversation with. It was enjoyable. It was… sweet.

Employers need to do this every now and then. That’s why bonuses are so great. Not only do we get money, but we get to experience this random “sweetness” that is so different from the norm, and makes us appreciate our job so much more. (I say “we” and “us” but I don’t actually get a bonus. Which is another story for another day. A day that will never come… because I don’t think that’s blog material.)

But I do get my own bit of sweetness at my job. Every now and then, something will happen that will bring a smile to my face. It’ll make me forget that this is “work”… even if for a moment. Yesterday I was working on a report that dealt with how the man hours on a certain project were being allotted. (I work in construction, remember?) The idea is that if we can figure out the appropriate amount of man hours needed for this job, we’ll be able to bid future jobs more accurately. So I was working on the report that breaks up those numbers and makes them more manageable. This involved going through each individual time sheet.

Oh sugar. Oh heaping tablespoon full of sugary goodness.

I was working on a particular week that had a holiday. Two days worth of holiday pay, which is 16 hours. The men never know how to report a holiday on their time sheet. They can’t say that they spent those 16 hours on a specific task, because that messes up the overall projections. But they all feel the need to write on their sheet “HOLIDAY” in some way, shape, or form. That’s where the sugar came in.

I like that guy. He made sure that the word “HOLIDAY” took up both days. There was no confusion. It was straight forward. Not all of them were that straight forward. Some of them chose a more creative way to write the word “holiday.”

Enjoy.

(Holady. Spell check doesn’t like this very much.)

(Holly Day. But what I really appreciate is that they whited out whatever was there and wrote “holly day” in festive green ink.) ( It’s the little things in life.)

(Holy Day. It wasn’t Christmas, Easter, or Good Friday. But this fella has it right on. Every day should be God’s day.)

(Oliday. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean I have heard about Noel (no “L”) but not Noach (no “H”))

(Man. That was knee-slapping hilarity.)

(And I’m actually sort of ashamed of myself.)

Brace yourself, y’all. Here’s my favorite.

(Jaludey. Brilliance. We pronounce the word Hall-uh-dey… it only makes sense.)

It made me smile. It made me laugh. It made me taste the sweetness of my job. It’s those little things we need to look out for in life. Things that are unexpected and can bring a cheerful smile to our faces. Those are the things that keep us going through the daily monotony.

That and, you know, like… actual sugar. In the form of chocolate and shortbread. But whatever.