Sleep Aid

Another lunch-hour meeting… I’m sitting in a cold boardroom bored out of my mind, furtively trying to stop my stomach from growling; meanwhile "Tulio" is doodling in his notebook and trying equally hard not to doze off. I glance over and he’s written “KILL ME” in the margin, in appropriately faint script. I find this suddenly hilarious and laugh cough chortle just a bit too loudly. After a few questioning looks from my boss I feign the utmost attention, smiling and nodding as dutifully as I am able. I think it worked.

This particular “working group” meeting is particularly fruitless because everyone talks *at* each other and doesn’t listen. We’ve been at this for months now, and haven’t made much progress. I think we’d do better if we taped our sessions and sold them as sleep aids: the soothing monotony, disconnect and repetition is the perfect cure for insomnia.

The rhetoric alone makes me drowsy.