Blog? Why?

You may call me Sunny Smiles, and blogging is a new experience for me. I never thought I would harness any of my writing skills. I've always enjoyed the English language and its many nuances, to the point of being deemed a "wordy" and a "thesaurus" by many of my closer acquaintances. I even employ it at my job, at times, when I need to jar the masses into action with some cleverly crafted phrases. But to really employ my "skills" (she says with self-deprecation) on a semi-regular basis for those who encounter my ramblings of their own volition, without any recompense beyond the smiles I hope to share?

Preposterous.

Until now.

I started my dead-end job almost five years ago, when I was still a whippersnapper in my first college degree and just dying to get into the "real world." I was young - not even twenty - when I landed a position with a small, local architecture and engineering company and began working my tail off. I never intended for this to be a long-term employment situation. I finished one college career and began another, and still found myself toiling diligently behind the same desk and within the same maze of cubicles as months drifted by in a haze. A few years, experiences, and misunderstandings later, I have changed positions within the company, and the company has changed beneath me. I have grown and changed myself, becoming a very different person from the girl who began with this company so long ago. All this change can leave a body reeling - is there any constant within which to find solace? Yes. A thousand times yes. Within this change, my comfort is always found within the social ineptitude of the engineering race.

It truly is mind boggling. Engineers, as a whole, are remarkably intelligent individuals with years of schooling behind them and piles of expensive certificates noting their accomplishments. However, they often possess - at best - a rudimentary understanding of how to behave in social situations: even those social scenarios within a corporate setting (i.e. Coffee Break Chatter). Years ago, I noted the frequency with which I was feeling awed and amazed by the social snafus of the indigenous fauna within my office. Months ago, I started channeling this awe and amazement into a series of posts on my local social networking site, much to the delight of friends (and a small number of sympathetic co-workers) who encouraged me to seek higher applications of what I had come to lovingly entitle my "Dear EngineerFriend" moments. Other coworkers unwittingly urged me onward with their persistent cries that I should indeed write something creative and harness the energy that so often directed itself at them when office-wide e-mails needed to be sent.

And thus... Dear EngineerFriend was born.

I do not intend the thoughts within to be the dirty, misshapen broad-brush standard by which all engineers (and, indeed, architects, whose innocence should not be assumed) are measured. In fact, there are those within my company without whom I would not have the literary aspirations I hold today, in awe of their own accomplishments and their faith in what I can do. These co-workers, at times, can be like a family to me. Some of them have adopted me as a pseudo-child: a not entirely unfortunate side effect of my age (although my aversion to the title "Kid" will become readily apparent as time drags on). Some have taken me under their wing as a cohort, a confidant or even a companion as the waves of change washed over our little piece of Employment Heaven. On the other hand, there are some - a small percentage, but still some - who regard me in the time honored fashion which some corporate males have grown to expect from females in their professional presence: As their own personal go-fer.

It is mostly this final variety from which I seek to find some humor herein. In fact, finding humor in their words is the one way to ensure that their patronizing, belittling condescension does not rip my last shreds of dignity from my hands and reduce me to a pitiful, whimpering heap beneath my desk next to the cheesy crackers I dropped there last Halloween.

Also... These people can just be a hoot, and I'd really like to share.

Enjoy :)

Glitter and Hugs,

**Sunny Smiles**