Good morning everyone, thank you so much for stopping by the breakroom! We are officially back to Spring Round 2 here in Minnesota. Our spontaneous blizzard has all melted, the weather is in the 60s, and we are hopeful that this time it sticks. We even have had several instances of rain this week. That’s right, while most of American was watching the eclipse earlier this week, I got to look outside at a cloudy sky while it was raining on top of the last bit of snow and ice on the ground. But I saw plenty of pictures of it online so that was good enough for me. In fact my entire Facebook feed seemed to be eclipse-related and it eventually it go to the point where all I could think about was:
But I digress, I certainly do not want to be a Negative Nelly about it all. So instead, why don’t we talk about what happened here at the office today?
As usual, Michael came in hot because he was excited to share his life-changing news with Pam; he was going to be father! No, he did not get his girlfriend pregnant. Instead, he was inspired by seeing Angelina Jolie talking to Oprah about how amazing her life had become after she adopted her child from China. So much so that he made the decision he wanted to do the same, so he asked Pam to get the necessary information for him. I don’t think we truly appreciate Pam for all that she has to put up with in her job. I will remind you all that she is the office receptionist. But on top of all that, Michael likes to treat her like she is his own personal assistant. You might have noticed she has been tasked with much more than usual ever since Ryan was made a full sales employee. Since he doesn’t have a temp that must do everything he says, Pam gets to be tasked with these sorts of requests. Thankfully, Pam already was relatively versed with this topic because Roy’s sister had actually considered it. Not only does the application fee run around $1,000 but there can a wait lasting close to eight months. Not only was this more expensive than he anticipated (again, this is just the application fee) but he doesn’t even know if he’d still want a child in eight months. Determined he wanted a guarantee of a child, he was able to talk Pam into agreeing to having a child with him in 30 years, providing neither of them are married. Personally, I think Pam decided that if she truly was still alone in that time, she could put up with Michael.
I was curious about these fees and wait times associated with adoptions so I did do some quick research. According to Family Equality, Pam was not kidding that adoption can be very expensive. There are actually three styles of adoption, and each has their own costs. The least expensive is Foster-to-Adopt in which you begin as a foster parent and then choose to adopt. These often run less than $2,600 and can even be free since they go through the public child welfare system. Next is the Domestic Adoption, where you choose to adopt from within the United States and typically range from $20,000 to $45,000. Finally, the International Adoption (which Michael was looking at) often range from $30,000 to $70,000. Technically there is the Second or Step Parent Adoptions but those have to do with formally adopting non-biological children, like if your were marrying someone who already had children. There are many factors that go into calculating the costs associated such as lawyer fees, the adoption agency you work with, and even any travel associated to other states or countries1. Many companies do offer benefits for those looking to adopt, including parental leave, so it is beneficial to look into what your company offers. The wait time can be even more broad with the wait being several months to even a year. Again, there are many factors that go into this but my understanding is the greatest wait can be for those looking to adopt an infant. While many people dream of adopting a young baby, let us not forget how many children and even teenagers are stuck in the system and would love to have a place to call home. For those looking to adopt, I urge you to consider older children who are just as eager to be adopted.
With this potential crisis averted, we can focus on our actual work day. So Michael and Dwight are actually not sticking around today! They are heading to Philadelphia for the annual Northeastern Mid-Market Office Supply Convention. It is a big deal for companies like ours to get in touch with these other companies, make connections and possibly get some new business. But they are not the only representatives for Dunder Mifflin because they will be meeting up with Josh and Jim from Stamford and then Jan from corporate. I could tell that Michael seemed to be very on edge about the whole trip. Besides having to deal with Jan and their past “relationship” this will be the first time he has seen Jim since he left and he has some pretty negative emotions towards Josh because of the transfer. Well, true to form Michael has a dedicated check list to go over all of this packing. They were only going for a couple nights but I have mad respect for a travel checklist. I personally take packing very seriously and will do checklists to ensure that I get everything I need. My husband went to Florida for a work training a couple months ago and I personally took care of his packing. He didn’t even ask, I simply took over the whole thing and made sure he was fully packed. Of course, it would’ve been about the time he was on the plane that I realized I forgot to send him with a travel umbrella. That is why you do a checklist, because even when you do there is that chance that one thing will slip your mind.
And they were off, I don’t know everything that happened but I did hear that in the end it was a pretty good trip. Michael was stoked about all of the swag that he got to pick up. So much, in fact, that he was planning on decorating his entire condo with the free swag they got from all of the vendors. He did get annoyed with Josh, and even had Dwight try to dig up some good dirt on him that he could use to torpedo his chances of absorbing the branch. Unfortunately, it sounds like Dwight’s “contact” he has wasn’t available so they weren’t able to come up with anything. For the record, I have never actually tried to dig dirt up on a colleague in an attempt to destroy their career. That being said, with so many people putting their entire lives on social media it is surprisingly easy to catch people compared to in the past. But left to his own devices, Michael was successful in arranging a deal with Hammermill so we could now offer their products to our customers. Considering that they were previously exclusive with Staples, I think this shows that Michael is a lot more capable than we often give him credit for. Even better, I hear he was able to patch things up with Jim so they are back on good terms. I guess Michael seemed to think Jim left Scranton because he thought Josh was the better boss. That doesn’t seem to be the case so there are no hard feelings between those two.
What did we do here in Scranton with Michael and Dwight gone? As it turns out, our office seems to run pretty smoothly with them gone so everything was business as usual. Did we perhaps slack off just a bit more with the bosses gone? Sure, but everyone does that. Especially since Angela also left and she is normally the stickler that doesn’t let anyone get away that sort of nonsense. Strange coincidence she left the same day as them, very odd. Our only really exciting news was Pam agreed to go on a double date with Kelly, Ryan and a friend of theirs who is a local cartoonist for the paper. I think Kelly thought that because Pam is really into art, that they might hit off. I had a hunch it wouldn’t be a love connection, this was her first date after being Roy since high school and the general rule is you need to get a couple of awkward dates under your belt as you put yourself back out there.
And that was pretty much all that happened here around the office, overall a pretty chill day with the boss away! I am jealous about not getting to go to that convention because I am crazy for getting to buy office supplies. Where does everyone like to get their favorite supplies? Predominately, I am either OfficeMax for in-person shopping or else I do love my Amazon. Does anyone have specific items that they are tied to a set brand? I have two personal favorites, notebooks and pens. For notebooks, I am obsessed with the brand Black n’ Red which can be found at both Amazon as well as OfficeMax. It might be a bit more expensive but I feel they are great quality, and they have a professional look to them so they are excellent to carry into a meeting. For pens, I only like to use Tul in 1.0 MED when available; again, these can be found at both OfficeMax and Amazon. Besides having a great look to them, they also have just the right feel in my end. While not everyone might be so specific with notebooks and pens, I feel we all have at least one thing that we need to have a specific brand or model of, otherwise we feel off. So please, feel free to list your favorite office supply down below in the comments!
I hope you all get a chance to enjoy the great weather this weekend, and if I don’t see you around the office I’ll make it a point to say hi to you around the breakroom!
- (n.d.). Average Adoption Costs in the United States. Family Equality. Retrieved April 11, 2024, from https://familyequality.org/resources/average-adoption-costs-in-the-united-states/ ↩︎
