I’m finally getting my Sthwingline Sthapplah!

Any of you that have seen the 1999 cult hit Office Space will know that so many things from that movie ring true with anyone working in a cubicle…I’ve worked in cubicles for more than ten years, so believe me when I say it makes this working girl feel good to know she’s not alone; that my office isn’t the only one with that geek or this jerk. I quote the movie all the time, and do a pretty good impersonation of Milton, the mumbling, run-on-sentence king who was laid off but was never told to leave and who has an obsession regarding his office supplies. “My desk used to be over there by the window, and there was a tree with squirrels and they were merry.”

Ever since I first saw the show, I wanted Milton’s special red Swingline Stapler. For years, every time I would look into it though, I would get the same answer; Swingline didn’t really make one, so you couldn’t get it…it was a fiction of the movie. The pressure of love for the show finally prompted Swingline to come out with a special edition a few years ago, but it was too expensive for someone to afford as a gag purchase. My dream was still unfulfilled. Finally, a geek website dedicated to such passions came out with a red Swingline stapler that was constantly in stock, no longer a special edition, but it was still fairly pricey. Ah…my desire for a nod to the movie of my working life still unrealized.

Well! This week I was informed that the new secretary coming to share my boss and allow me to work part time was going to start next Monday and her cubicle needed to be prepared in anticipation of her arrival. I cleaned and stocked the desk with the basic necessities readily on hand in our supply closet; post-it notes, pens, paper clips. There were a few things missing though, so I borrowed the office catalog to order the scissors, hole-punch, and tape dispenser. While looking through the ten pages of staplers for a cheap and basic option…there it was…Ahhhhhh…choirs of angels sung in my ears and the light from the page nearly blinded me. Nestled in the midst of all of the other Swingline items, a classic Red Stapler! Ah, heaven! It wasn’t an exorbitant price either!…about five dollars more than the basic black! I can pay for that! The receptionist is on strict orders to bring the delivery to me before it makes its way back to the new desk, and if my black stapler ends up with a new home, you don’t know how it happened, right? My smiles of joy every time I view my bright red stapler will keep you from caring that my Swingline is prettier than all of the rest.

~ by bylorena on November 13, 2008.