The power of the quad

I sit in a cubicle. There are four of us in this cluster.

Even though it's a cube, I love love love where I am. I have a wall of windows at my back, and those windows face the front of the building. It gets tons of light and is just really pleasant. The top of the cube walls have windows to let more light in as well.

And also, I love the people I sit near. My quad-mates are two women and my pal Bob, who I've talked about at length.

Bob is the one who started calling it The Quad. We do a check in the morning to see who has arrived. Sometimes Bob will just go, "Ssssssss." and I'll hiss back to show I'm there. Super dorky, but fun.

We check power daily. Bob started it. Like, if one person was gone on any given day, Bob started saying, "Quad is at 75% power." Of course, we feel best at 100% power.

Mega dorks. Yes, we are.

My friend Jenny, who I've recently gotten to know, shares a wall with me, works out a ton. We often run into each other at the gym downstairs. Once I forgot my iPod and ran into her at the end of her workout, so she lent hers to me. Another time I had everything except workout shorts, and really, really wanted to work out. She had an extra pair.

So Friday, at a point where the Quad was at 75% power, I was working away when Jenny's face appeared in the window above my monitor. She whispered, "Hey. Do you have an extra sports bra?"

I whispered back, "Sports bra? Yeah, actually, I do!"

Just that morning I'd brought extra clothes to the office to leave for future use.

So as I was rummaging through the file drawer reserved for workout clothing, Bob's low voice shot over the wall.

"I'm sorry. Did I just hear what I thought I heard? Because if I did, you two just made my day."

So then of course we had to ask him if he had an extra pillow in his cube because I'd forgotten mine and Fridays are naked pillow fight days in the locker room. You know, because the jello wrestling in the showers had gotten kind of old.