I Am Actually Here, Even If My Car Isn't (or stupid small talk)

This morning, one of my co-workers walked into my office, looking very surprised, and said,

“Oh, you’re here!”

“Yes, I am here,” I said.

“Well,” she said, “I didn’t see your car.”

She said this with an incredulous expression, as if the absence of my car could only mean the absence of my body. That I was not the actual physical presence of myself sitting in my desk chair, but rather a ghostly apparition. My coworkers would never take the bus to work because they live outside the city limits. They live far away because they don’t want to deal with the traffic in town. So, insteady, they will commute 30+ miles a day, each way.

“Well, I am here,” I affirmed.

She probably should never move to New York City. Because she might walk into an office full of ghosts who take the subway and/or walk.