Tuesday Part Tue.

I often joke with my coworkers about how our office is just like Office Space. We have almost all of the same characters - even a Milton. Today, I had a facepalm moment with Milton in the copy room.

I went to pick up several things I had printed out at the network printer shared by my half of the office, none of which were really "work related," so to speak. Milton stood at the copier, perplexed by the blinking red light and the NO PAPER icon. Milton looks like a younger, beardless version of Santa Claus, but less jolly and without presents.

"I think it's out of paper!" Milton exclaimed after a few minutes. He looked at me as if I had just come to deliver him from this problem of epic proportions. Instead of acknowledging him, I came back into my office. The copy room has cupboards full of paper reams for just such a conundrum, and I was sure he would refill the paper tray so that the rest of his documents would print. Seconds later, Milton poked his head in my office.

"I just wanted to let you know that I didn't refill the paper tray," he said. "I didn't see the right kind of paper and I don't know where we keep the other kind."

"The...supply...room?" I prompted incredulously. Milton has been here much longer than I have, and the supply room is smack dab in the middle of the office floor. Think about it.

"Oh, yeah! I'm sure there would be some in there. I didn't get any though," he said thickly. I got up, went to the supply room, got two stacks of paper and returned to the copy room to refill the paper trays. Milton was standing at the machine again, trying to clear the screen. I put the paper in the trays, and miraculously, the copier sprang to life.

"Oh! Looks like it's working now!" Milton chuckled, more to himself than to me. I collected my documents and left him standing there, trying to figure out how to make color copies - quite possibly for a poster of a red stapler.