Thursday nights at the office.

(and or what I love/hate about my job)

Thursdays have always been special to me. First they were TV dates with my best friend in high school, then they were Mod Night at the Pyramid Cabaret and now they are the evening of magazine production.

It's 7:45 pm and I'm at work. Until noon, I had no plans of coming in today. But last minute, I had to come in to re-work a story that had been slipped off the editing table until this afternoon, just a few hours before the next issue goes to print. 

As much as I would rather be spending the time drinking with my friends, I don't mind sticking around the office. Here's why:

1. They order me food- A buffalo chicken wrap is scheduled to show up at my cubicle any minute, via Lettuce eatery. What more could a hungry young writer ask for? 

2. The down time- I spent three or four hours digging up extra info to plug into my latest story. Now my editor is going over the piece. That means that until he's done, I have two computers, endless racks of magazines and 100 years of archives to entertain me. It's a nerds paradise. 

3. The crunch- It's embarrassing but I find deadlines exciting. Scrambling to get all the right words in the right places, making the copy fit and finding art to match the story before the printer comes to pick up the copy is like being a runner in a race for geeks. 

4. The emptiness- I work in a huge complex that's usually crawling with security guards, HR reps in crisp pantsuits and loud heels and sports broadcasters in freshly pressed suits. At this time of night, they're all long gone, and I'm not subjected to any elevator talk-it's just me and my iPod-and that's the way I like it. 

5. The built-in excuse- I'm too tired for the parties I promised I would attend, but I don't have to pick up my phone. I'm at work.