Meeting Minutes

I went to a meeting with the bigwigs. I had prepared my presentation carefully, as my boss and another colleague who knew a lot about the subject could not be there, and I was representing my unit for the first time, feeling anxious that I might say the wrong thing! Everybody took too long to talk their piece, and I felt really sleepy by the time my turn was almost up. I was yawning, you know, those big, wide yawns which you try to suppress, but where you can’t fool anyone? I thought how embarrassing it would be to look so bored and sleepy, and worse yet, to actually fall asleep in the meeting, on top of the fact that I might say the wrong thing! I was kicking myself for not having had any coffee before the meeting. All of a sudden, I saw this big fat stick just outside the 2nd floor conference room window, swaying back and forth and appearing really threatening as it approached the glass dangerously, but then retreating, going back towards the trees, only to come back in a rush again. I sat there transfixed on what was happening outside the window. I heard two guys talk in Spanish, sounding urgent, not relaxed. I admonished myself for the 100th time for living in California and not speaking Spanish. Then I saw them, first one, and then the other. They were window-washers who come to clean the windows once a week. They had big smiles on their faces as they looked in on our meeting, probably feeling sorry for us and feeling lucky for themselves, washed the windows and moved on to the next window, waving at me as they went. I wasn’t sleepy anymore.