Musings from Cubeland

The Official Website of Author H.B. Huisinga...

Photographs by Jonathan Kang

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Updated: 10/03/05.

Musings from Cubeland

by H.B. Huisinga

I sit close to my monitor. Staring into its blank white depths. Hoping for escape, but finding only a blinking cursor goading me on to finish my work. Hours upon hours upon hours and still more I find myself sitting, squirming, wrenching around in my chair while staring into the blank white depths of the monitor. Once, I thought I saw a blip of activity, but it danced away too quick to be interpreted by my dazed eyes. Sleep washes over me more than once, and I day dream of falling backwards over my chair just for some excitement in my day. Coming out of my day dream I realize I'm staring up at the blank, white-tiled ceiling all too aware I may have been snoring, and snoring quite loud enough to startle myself. I look around to see if I've been spotted, but an eerie hum of technology greets my gaze. I can hear idle chatter behind be, before me, surrounding me. Straining hard I try to make out the punch line of a wandering story line. Still I stare at the blank white screen before me. Another time, I looked to my left trying to catch a glimpse of something fast moving on the far reaches of my peripheral vision. I snapped back to the screen after realizing I'd wandered further away from my task. Not good. Not good at all. If I'm spotted looking anywhere but at the screen someone will tell. Where my escapes once came in the form of loosing myself in the monitor I now escape through sheepish trips every half hour to the restroom. There was a time when I thought working on a computer would free my liberty to do anything I wanted. Now, I run like a coward to the bathroom to steal a few minutes behind closed doors to regain my sanity. The highlight of my day has turned from high praise over a job well done to chasing a tampon across the bathroom floor from my carpal tunnel weakened hands. Sometimes I leave with a bit of toilet paper stuck in my shoe to give others a reason for escape if only for just a few moments. My mind wakens a shade as I think of other things while staring at this blank screen before me. As long as I keep my hand moving once every minute no one will suspect I'm drawing another world inside my head. Writing another story just beneath the murky surface of my half-sleepened eyes. Yearning for the free space at home where I sit before another monitor feeling uninhibited and crafting my next project. I have a brief moment of clarity when I suddenly realize... Corporate America has turned me into a leming! I want my life back right now, Mister!