"Cuba"

I work in what is affectionately known as "Cuba". When you walk into our side of the building and get past the reception desk, pretty much all you can see are the walls of cubicles. Each cube is configured almost exactly the same except that some desks face the right and some the left. We all have two overhead cupboards, we all have the same amount of desktop space, we have two large file folder drawers on the long side,three smaller drawers on the short side and with the exception of the lucky or unlucky few, depending on how you feel about it, have a window, we all have a big white board. But that is where the similarities end. You can tell a lot about the person who lives in the square little space by taking a close look at their cube. We don't really have a lot of rules about our cubes so we can pretty much do what we want with them.

Some cubes are completely organized and no matter what time of the day you walk past them there never seems to be a thing other then maybe a pen or a pencil out of place. The walls are pretty much bare except for an Epic Certification Plaque, a calendar and absolutely only the most necessary informational pieces of paper. There may be one picture of a spouse or children. Those cubes are always subject to question does the person who live here really work? Or are they coming or going. Kind of like some peoples homes you can never really tell if they are moving in or moving out.

Some cubes look lived in during working hours. The desk is strewn with papers but they are also neatly in order, things are pretty much always under control. The walls say that the occupant is there to stay and there are a few pictures a knickknack or two but when the end of the day comes Everything is put back into place. It says I will be ready to start fresh in the morning.

Then there are the cubes that look like the occupant never goes home. Quite honestly as if bomb could have gone off in it. The walls have notes pinned on top of notes, there is no bare space on the desktop, and you wonder how anything can possibly be found! Since there is no longer any room on the desk the floor will have to do. It is weird but some of these people seem to get the most done in the day.

Personal items vary from cube to cube. There are the cubes that can always be counted on to have a candy dish that is kept well filled, some where the soda cans, and the styrofoam cups accumulate through the week. You can tell the pet lovers, the pet pictures almost always out number the people pictures. There are the sports fanatics, who fill their space with anything belonging to their sport and team of choice. There are the collectors, whether it be Mickey Mouse or something else, everything is Micky, the clock the calendar the notepad, everything! There are those with CD players, I Pods and yes some still have an old fashioned radio.Some people cannot live with out at least one plant, how they keep them alive I do not know. You can tell who is always hot by the fan, who is cold by the blanket that is draped over the chair. There are the snackers and the health fanatics. The deep thinkers, they always have some deep quote written on their white board and those that everyone likes to pick on. They very often have something written on their white board that was obviously written by someone other then themselves. Then there are those who will decorate very elaborately for every holiday. Not sure when they find the time but they do.

My cube is somewhere in between organized and a bomb went off. I have more pictures then some but they are all of my grandchildren. I have more then just the bare minimum on the walls but not one piece of paper touches the next. There is never more then two or three days of beverage containers on the desk at any one time. I have a candy dish but at times it may sit empty. There is a Vikings blanket draped on my chair along with a sweater. I have not upgraded to an I Pod yet but I have moved beyond a radio. I have a few holiday and seasonal things I set out at the the appropriate times, that is when I remember to get them out of the drawer but I may not remember to put winter away until summer is almost over. Until today it was quite possibly one of the dirtiest. The cleaning people are not allowed to touch our desk, they are supposed to vacuum but I am sure that they do not do any more then make one sweep in and out because I know there are M&M's under my desk that have been there at least a year! I could not take the dust and the sticky spots any longer. I had to dust and 409 the place! It was disgusting! So for at least for a couple of days it should be fairly clean.

Cubes are as interesting as the people who spend a good deal of their lives in them. Our home away from home.