There are 3 women in my section of offices (read:cubicles) and I am the only one without children/grandchildren. Every freaking morning, I have to listen to their inane kid-talk spoken in the voice of Stuart's mother on Mad TV. My ears are unusually sensitive in the morning, so all this nonsense is amplified until they finish about an hour into the day. Good thing I'm always a little late.

So last week, I got a paper shredder. It's just a little one, but it's really loud. Drowns out all the voices around me. Hmmm... I tried it out this morning, right when I was getting ready to scream, and the growling, spitting, paper-rumpling shredder silenced everyone. Ahh. I continued with my 2-inch stack of proprietary information. Peace.