Two Stories

#1)  Where's George?

Back in the middle of March, one of the $1 bills I got as change from the lunch truck guy was stamped with a rubber stamp along the edges: Where's George? This bill is being tracked, please enter it. www.wheresgeorge.com So I went to the website and entered the serial number. Turns out this bill had travelled from Vegas, and the user entered notes saying (s)he had won it playing craps, and was going to use it to play video poker in San Diego, CA. This was kind of interesting! 

I started exploring the site, looking at the different bills, where they'd travelled and user notes on how they got them. I also discovered that most of the bills don't get entered, that the bills with the highest number of tracking entries had been circulating for a good 10 years and only had been entered 15 times. There were also several bills that had gone "AWOL" for 10 years - meaning they were entered into the system in 1996 or so and the first tracking entry finally came in 2006. 

I decided I wanted to give it a try anyhow. So I took out two of the crispiest, newest $1 bills in my wallet, and wrote with blue ball point pen in small letters along the edges of the bills: This bill is being tracked, please enter it. www.wheresgeorge.com 

I thought about using my pink highlighter to make what I had written more noticeable, like the red rubber stamp on the other $1 bill I'd found, but I'd also been reading about defacing U.S. Currency. Marking the bills for Where's George? seems to be a fuzzy area, (if you decide to trust Wikipedia) and so I decided against the highlighter. No reason to draw more attention to what may or may not be illegal, just in case.

Anyhow, I used both bills on separate days to pay for lunch at the lunch truck, and considering the low rate of entries for most bills, I figured that was the last I'd know of my bills for quite a while.

But today, I got a notification e-mail! One of my bills had been entered! It's in Los Angeles now. Not quite sure was the user note means, "Yay I just whipped my [butt] with this bill smell the rose", but I'm still excited that at least one of my bills has shown up again so quickly! 

#2)  The Happiest Blonde Moment

At work, I'm a data entry clerk. (Blah.) As such, a copy holder is essential to efficiency and not hurting my neck trying to look at papers lying flat on my desk. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was unclipping a paper from my copy holder, and I guess I must have pressed down to hard, because the piece on the back that makes the holder stand up snapped off. I examined the standing piece to see if it was damaged, and it looked like a couple of small pieces had broken off the part that snaps into the back of the holder. I tried to put it back on, but it didn't stay. My copy holder was broken. =(

So I went to the general manager to ask if I could get a new one. He said ok. But since we were between purchasing agents (the person in charge of order office supplies), it didn't get ordered right away. I've been making do with my broken one, it stands if I prop it against something, and I just have to be more careful when sliding the line marker and putting papers on and taking them off. Which slows down my work rhythm a bit. (working effeciency). 

Anyhow, today our new purchasing agent started working today, and he found the note I'd left on the purchasing desk to get a new one. So he came over and I showed him the broken one. He said, "Maybe I can superglue the backstand on." I didn't like that because the back needs to fold in so I can store it off my desk for the few tasks that I don't need it for. Superglue meant the back wouldn't fold. So the purchasing agent is examining the stand and the holder, looking at how they're supposed to fit together, and then SNAP!  He's attached the back to the holder. It wasn't broken after all! HUZZAH!! I was so happy!

But I didn't know wether to keep smiling like a dork, or to feel really stupid cuz I'm usually really good with assembling things and putting things together, especially simple stuff like that.