Corporate Office i. urmeneta
a collection of short stories.
He did another return, again the math squared and there were no itemizations on 34 A and the printout’s numbers for W-2 and 1099 and Forms 2440 and 2441 appeared to square and he filled out his codes for the middle tray’s 402 and signed his name and ID number that some part of still refused to quite get memorized so he had to unclip his badge and check it each time and then stapled the 402 to the return and put the file in the top tier’s rightmost tray for 402s Out and refused to let himself count the number in the trays yet, and then unbidden came the thought that boring also meant something that drilled in and made a hole. the pale king, chapter 33 - d. foster wallace
Irene stood for a minute before the hideous cabinet, disgraced and sickened, but she held her hand on the switch before she extinguished the music and the voices, hoping that the instrument might speak to her kindly, that she might hear the Sweeneys’ nurse. Jim continued to shout at her from the door. The voice on the radio was suave and noncommital. “An early-morning railroad disaster in Tokyo,” the loudspeaker said, “killed twenty-nine people. A fire in a Catholic hospital near Buffalo for the care of blind children was extinguished early this morning by nuns. The temperature is fortyseven. The humidy is eighty-nine.” the stories of john cheever, the enormous radio -j. cheever
Juliet knew that, to many people, she might seem to be odd and solitary - and so, in a way, she was. But she had also had the experience, for much of her life, of feeling surrounded by people who wanted to drain away her attention and her time and her soul. And usually, she let them. Be available, be friendly (especially if you are not popular) that was what you learned in a small town and also in a girl’s dormitory. Be accomodating to anybody who wants to suck you dry, even if they know nothing about who you are. runaway, chance, a. munro
His job was to examine each one of a certain model of decorative mirror that came off the final production line, for flaws. A flaw was usually a bubble or unevenness in the mirror’s aluminum backing that caused the reflected image to distend or distort in some way. Garrity had twenty seconds to check each mirror. Industrial pyschology was a primitive discipline then, and there was little understanding of non-physical types of stress. In essence, Garrity sat on a stool next to a slow-moving belt and moved his upper body in a complex system of squares and butterfly shapes, examining his face’s reflection at very close range. He did this three times a minute, 1440 times per day, 356 a year, for eighteen years. Toward the end he evidently moved his body in the complex inspectorial system of squares and butterfly shapes even when he was offduty and there were no mirrors around. the pale king, chapter 26 -d. foster wallace
People did not know what she knew, that she was not really a woman but a man, often a fat man, but more often probably, an old man. The fact that she was an old man made it hard for her to be a young woman. It was hard for her to talk to a young man, for instance, though the young man was clearly interested in her. She had to ask herself, Why is this young man flirting with this old man? break it down, what she knew -l. davis
What does it mean to live in a room? Is to live in a place to take possession of it? What does taking posession of a place mean? As from when does somewhere become truly yours? Is it when you’ve put your three pairs of socks to soak in a pink plastic bowl? Is it when you’ve heated up your spaghetti over a camping-gaz? Is it when you’ve used up all the non-matching hangers in the cupboard? Is when you’ve drawing-pinned to the wall an old postcard showing Carpaccio’s ‘Dream of St Ursula’? Is it when you’ve experienced there the throes of anticipation, or the exaltations of passion, or the torments of a toothache? Is it when you’ve hung suitable curtains up on the windows , and put up the wall paper, and sanded the parquet flooring? species of spaces and other pieces, the bedroom - g. perec
And just as all things will be repeated in the future, all things now happening happened a million times before. Some few people in every town, in their dreams, are vaguely aware that all has occurred in the past. These are the people with unhappy lives, and they sense that their misjudgements and wrong deeds and bad luck have all taken place in their previous loop of time. In the dead of night these cursed citizens wrestle with their bedsheets, unable to rest, stricken with the knowledge that they cannot change a single action, a single gesture. Their mistakes will be repeated precisely in this life as in the life before. And it is these double unfortunates who give the only sign that time is a circle. For in each town, late at night, the vacant streets and balconies fill up with their moans. einstein’s dreams, 14 april 1905 -a. lightman
DESK STRETCHES ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Breathe easily No bouncing or forcing No pain! Feel the stretch Relax See Stretching Instructions, pp. 77–84
These are stretches to do at your desk. This program will take 2 1/2 – 3 min.
5
9
6
10
5 sec p. 84
10 sec p. 82
1
5 sec, 3 times p. 82
5 sec each side p. 84
10 sec p. 81
2
5 sec, 3 times p. 82
7
11
5 sec p. 84
3
9 sec each side p. 82
5 sec, 2 times p. 81
8 4
5 sec, 2 times p. 84
■ ■ ■ ■
10 sec each arm p. 81
12
10 sec p. 79
Prolonged sitting at a desk or computer terminal can cause muscular tension and pain. Taking a few minutes to do a series of stretches can make your whole body feel better. Learn to stretch spontaneously throughout the day whenever you feel tense. Don’t just do seated stretches, but do some standing stretches too. Good for circulation.
From the book:
34
Getting in Shape © 2002 Shelter Publications, Inc.
www.shelterpub.com
Photocopy this page and keep it in your desk drawer.
She kept talking. She told everyone. There was more to it, and she was trying to get it talked out. After a time, she quit trying. what we talk about when we talk about love, why don’t you dance? -r. carver
Irene Urmeneta is a designer living and working in New York. This is her second book.