和 敬 西 洋

Mmmkay.


So, there's a lady with a cart (from the basement cafe) who has sandwiches, wraps, salads, fruit, bagels, etc, and she takes the service elevator one floor at a time, using the service elevator lobby as her one-stop eatery spot. Same idea as a catering truck, but for indoors use only. To announce her presence, she rings a (rather high-pitched, obnoxious) bell, and waits for five minutes or so for folks to trickle over and buy something for lunch.

The management has apparently been on her ass for the bell-ringing, as they don't appreciate the Hunchback overtones of her business enterprise. Or something. Basically, she needs a less obnoxious bell, or find a new method of announcing her presence, such as walking around each floor (which leaves the cart unattended, bad plan also). While I don't disagree with management - being in a lobby that has awesome acoustics, that bell is DAMN painful, it's amusing to see just how many people are conditioned to it. So she's stopped ringing the bell, and most likely, stopped the thrice-daily route up and down the elevators to provide the Gateway clientele with insta-grat food.

Daily now, people have come up to me asking where the bell lady is, if I've seen her, etc. I really, REALLY want to answer, "She married some guy named Pavlov and helps out at the local vet clinic." or some variation of the above. Really. What usually comes out, after the tact filter kicks in on my frontal lobe, is "I haven't seen her. But it's all the same stuff as downstairs." (Downstairs is a 5-minute trip, tops, if you have to wait for the elevator.)

I wonder how many of the folks around here would get it if I call it Pavlov's Snack Cart or something.
"No, haven't seen Pavlov today."
"Who?"
"...Nevermind."