Fads

We’re a funny bunch, we fishpimps. We’re more synchronized than a sorority house at the wrong time of the month. When someone goes out and gets the new stainless steel barbecue from Costco, we all have to go get the new stainless steel barbecue from Costco. Seriously, I think this office single-handedly keeps the local Costco in business.

But we’re not limited to the warehouse stores. We like to support all facets of our economy. Right now everyone is into sunflower seeds. Every other desk in the building has an open drawer with a bag of David brand seeds. The purchasing office disposed of any form of discretion and just put a big bowl out on the central filing cabinet. I think they’re popular because everyone is working off the previous fad: Kodiak brand chewing tobacco.

Or it could be trying to curb the appetite – we tend to visit the same restaurant until we’re sick of it. Fist it was the Barney’s for hot pastrami sandwiches, then the Casa Corona for tacos, then the Philly Ya’ Belly for cheesesteaks, then John’s Wok for Asian fusion, then K’s deli for soup. Currently we are without a central dining destination, I’ll keep you posted.

We’re also streaky about our espresso. There are eleven (11) espresso shops between the freeway and the fishhouse. Eleven in a 3 mile stretch; 30% of which are Starbucks outlets. Ridiculous. We’re currently frequenting the closest Starbucks, but our loyalty can be bought, well, perhaps “bought” is the wrong word. The only reason we frequented the last place is because the barista looked (and dressed ) like a porn star - seriously, she even let one of the guys take pictures of her putting the “steam” in steamed milk (the trouble started when the pics started popping up on the internal network.) Unfortunately, the coffee was terrible.

Then there was the Top Tattoo epoch. No fewer than 12 of my cohorts here made the trek down to this little tatty-shack just over the county line to “get some ink done”. I shouldn’t be surprised by this, I wrote a paper in college titled “Piercing and Tattooing in America”, I found that very few people go alone to get a tattoo – safety in numbers, I guess.

Then there were Ford Rangers. I bought a Ranger the week after I started here. I drove it to work the next day. Later that morning I heard someone shout “Hey, who’s got the new Ranger?!”
“It’s mine. Why do you ask?” says I, thoroughly confused by the attention drawn by my new, but economically prudent pick-up truck.
“Welcome to the club!”
“Huh? Club?”
“The Ranger club, dude! We all got one; Me, Simon, E-man, Jared, Rich, Harry, Rob the driver, we all got ‘em!”

I had no idea I was so hip to the fishhouse vogue.

I also had no idea that it was possible to use “fishhouse” and “vogue” in the same sentence.

OK – I realize that this post isn’t all that funny, so I’ll leave you with the latest Simonism:

“Hey – we’ve got work to do! We’re all high-fivin’ each other around here when maybe we should only be four-finger high-fivin.”

Here’s a big four-finger-high-five goin' out to y’all

J.fish – out.