I love this. You took me back to the first day of every job I've ever had. It was not a pleasant stroll down memory lane.

I actually quit my first full-time, permanent job because the boss went through my trash at night, took out all the empty ballpoint refills I'd tossed when I cleaned out the desk of whatever person had wisely left the job before me. I asked him why he'd retrieved them.

"The ink might come back," he explained. I waited for him to laugh, but he was dead serious. "And don't throw away the center of the bathroom tissue rolls," he admonished.

"What do you use them for?" I asked.

"I don't know yet," he replied tersely.

I went to lunch and didn't come back.