Chapter 4 I entered the building feeling good, looking good, and confident within myself. First impressions are important, I always told my girls. "Hello, I'm Carla, today's my first day," I said to the younger woman at the front desk. "I am supposed to report to Major Lewis." "Hil! Im Angela, I will call him for you, have a seat," she responded. I thought to myself, my stomach is upset, I better not start getting sick... "Carla, hello again. Is it ok to call you Carla?" Mr. Lewis asked me. "Yes, of course. Hello," I smiled and extended my hand to him.

"Follow me, and we'll get started." He lead me down a long hallway, pointing out other offices belonging to other Deputies, the chief, etc. When he finally opened the door to a larger office with two desks. "This is where you will spend most of your day, it was just painted, that's why we couldn't meet in here during your interview." I had no idea what the set up was actually, I was so glad to be offered the position, I didn't ask too many questions. "It's very nice," I smiled. "This one's yours, you'll need to gather your own office supplies, we have a supply closet down the hall.

You're my first, and hopefully last assistant," he smiled. "If you don't see something you need, just save me a receipt, I can get you reimbursed quickly. We will have to organize things by trial and error, hope that works for you? It can get crazy around here, people are in and out constantly, so am I, and the phone doesn't stop. Come 9:00 am it's a madhouse, that I can't and don't want to organize, I leave that up to you. I'd like us to meet daily at 8:30 to discuss the day ahead. Here's my personal cell phone, if you need it." He wrote it down on a scrap piece of paper.

His desk had piles of papers on it, mail that hadn't been opened yet, old coffee cups and a picture of his family. My new desk was empty, all that sat on it was a laptop and a telephone. It was a large room with a few artificial plants and a nice big window. I could smell the fresh paint. "Here are the passwords to the computer, I couldn't figure out the damn answering machine message, you can go ahead and record whatever message you want." "Ok," I went over to the desk, opened a drawer, hoping to find a pad and pen but it was completely empty.

"This is the only pen in the office, I keep it in my pocket so I don't lose it. Can you see why I needed an assistant?" "Yes, that's ok, I like to organize things," I looked around the office, the walls were blank, other than a few certificates hanging over his desk. There were a couple of book shelves that were half full and two filing cabinets. The phone rang, "Ignore it for today, I will tell the girl up front to continue taking my calls until tomorrow. Take this morning to get your supplies, organize this place, pick up whatever else you might need and we can continue after lunch.

I have a meeting downtown shortly, when I get back we can discuss more details, sound good?" he asked and began searching through his drawers for something. "Yes, sounds good. Just a few questions though. Do you want me to reorganize the things on your desk too?" "Please, I need some of those plastic organizers, whatever you think works best, in fact here..." he pulled out his wallet, here's the expense card to Office Depot, go get us what we need, I will call and add you on to the account before I leave." "Ok, show me where the supply cabinet is!" I was excited to get started.

I wanted a full charge position and think I got more than that actually. I liked being able to set things up my way. Mr. Lewis seemed genuinely nice, disorganized for sure, and busy. He was probably around sixty five years old, still had a full head of hair. He kept is very short, like most of the men here. Mr. Lewis wore slacks and a button down dress shirt, I didn't see a jacket. He hada belly that made him look like a nine month pregnant woman. His family photo looked as though he had the perfect family next door, two daughters, and a dog.

I carried an armful of stuff from the closet to my new office, when I entered I saw a woman. "Hello, can I help you?" I asked. "Hello, I'm Mrs. Lewis, are you Bob's new assistant?" she smiled. "Yes, I am, nice to meet you. I'm Carla," I went over and dropped everything on top of my desk. "You've got your hands full with Bob, I'm sure you can tell already, he is unorganized and needs someone to keep him straight. Don't be afraid to boss him around," she teased. "I bought these pictures, do you like them?" "Yes, they are beautiful." There were three of them, all different ocean scenes.

"IT thought they would brighten up the space here. I see he hung is certificates with thumb tacks." "Oh no! I hadn't noticed," I laughed. "I have to stop by Office Depot later on, I can pick up some picture hangers." "IT brought a hammer and hangers for these three, but yes, if you will take care of fixing the certificates so they don't fall down on top of his head!" she said as she began eyeballing the pictures to hang. We chit chatted about our families as I sorted through my supplies and filled my desk. I brought extra things to stock up Mr. Lewis' desk too and I started my supply list.

"That looks great!" I said when Mrs. Lewis finished hanging the large pictures. Several people had come by the office to introduce themselves to me but also to see Mrs. Lewis, she seemed to be well known here. "Would you like to have lunch dear?" she asked me. "Sure?" I responded. "When?" "Now," she answered, looking at the clock. "It's nearly eleven, we'll call it brunch," she smiled. "I think it would be good for us to get to know each other a little bit, I can fill you in on my husbands habits," she laughed.

"Don't worry, I'm not here that often, I promise." "IT would love to go to lunch with you, thank you. Did you have a place in mind?" I grabbed my purse and we headed out. I thought it was just wonderful of her to want to get to know me too. It seemed as though I'd be spending a lot of time managing her husbands daily needs, I appreciate any advice she is willing to give. Mrs. Lewis was very friendly, seemed kind and seemed to love her husband. She was in a similar situation to me, with her kids being grown. However, she spent most of her free time at the country club and volunteering.

When I arrived back at the office, my arms were again full of supplies, I felt a bit awkward, not knowing how much was too much to spend. I got the basic organizational items, pen holder, large calendar for the wall, the plastic desk organizers etc. I went to work organizing immediately. I shifted Mr. Lewis' papers into a few piles, not knowing exactly what was important yet. I took the unopened stack of mail and went through it, most of it was advertisements. I did see the Office Depot bill, which was almost past due already, and a few notices I wasn't sure about.

I stocked him up with pens in a small holder and placed it on top of his desk. I hung the calendar, fixed the certificates, created the answering machine message. I was getting tired, and my day was only half over. "Well, it looks like I have an assistant in this office now!" Mr. Lewis said excitedly as he walked in. "Oh! And my wife was here, I see," he admired the pictures hanging up. "Yes, she was just lovely, she took me to lunch actually, I hope that's ok?" I said hesitantly. "Sure, no problem. She mentioned it to me, I forgot to tell you she might come by.

I think she wanted to check you out, you know wives," he whispered. I laughed out loud, "Yes, I do." He seemed old fashioned, sort of like Pete. "I hope you don't mind, I took it upon myself to open the mail and noticed this bill is about due." "Oh yeah, good. That needs to go to accounting by the end of the day, could you run it up? It's on the third floor," he went and sat at his desk. I grabbed a notebook and sat in front of his desk. "Thave a few questions." "This is great, I can see my desk again.

Ok, let's get started." "Well, I wasn't sure how you felt about keeping a calendar electronically or on paper. I kind of like to do both. I bought this wall calendar so that we can see quickly what's scheduled, but then through the google calendar I can leave more detailed information about each event," I sounded so professional, I secretly patted myself on the back. "If you show me how, I will try it. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks ...NOT TRUE!" he raised his voice with excitement. "I'm old, but willing to at least try new things.

I've seen just about everything around here, I'm not gonna let technology kick me on my ass. I started at this very station way back in the 70's as a trooper, fresh out of school, thought I'd save the world," he laughed at himself. "Look at me now, forty something years later, they finally gave me some help." I listened to every word he said, I admired him already. He seemed to be a good man. I honestly had no idea when I took this job that I was actually going to be his assistant. "Allright, show me how to work this calendar, I got several important meetings this month, I can't forget about.

Don't be afraid to remind me, over and over, if you have to." "Ok," I smiled. "I won't." My afternoon flew by. I walked into the house excited to tell Pete all about my day. "Hey hun! I'm so tired, my gosh I was so busy today. I even went out to lunch!" "Oh yeah," he smiled. "I just got home a few minutes ago too." He worked part time at Home Depot, just two or three days a week for a little extra money and discounts. "Want to go out for dinner?" "Yeah, I'm definitely not cooking, can we go now though, I'm going to bed early," I whined. "Poor baby tired from her first day at work?" he teased.

I didn't give him a chance to ask me anything else, I spent the whole car ride, the entire dinner, and ride home talking about me. It was a nice change. Pete was genuinely interested for the first hour or so, he was polite about it, I understood though. I tended to get carried away with my story's, even though I had already talked to the girls on my way home in the car, I repeated it all again and more! I turned in early that night, "Will you come rub my back, please," I asked as I kissed him goodnight. "Awe, just for a few minutes and I'm not doing your feet," he moaned.

"Ok, thanks hun." I climbed into bed and think I started snoring before Pete even quit rubbing.