Yes I’m in Swing Space at work. Here’s what that means. We recently added a new wing onto our building, and so now we are in the process of moving everyone around to new places. Our department is essentially staying in the same place, but we have a bit more room, so I can actually get my own desk again!!! (In case you hadn’t heard, I’m currently in “the pit”, which I share with 9 other people). Well, actually CURRENTLY currently I’m in swing space. But before I moved, I had been moved from my real cube to “the pit”. So, we have this swing space, which is similar to the pit in that there are a ton of people in a small place. They move us down here so that they can reconfigure our cubes while we’re gone. We’re only here for 2 weeks – we move back up this Friday. So that’s nice – one other group that was just down here was down here for 6 weeks.

Though there are some perks to being in swing space. #1 – free lunch on Tuesdays. The downside is that you have to wear this ridiculous tie-dye T-shirt to get your lunch. But hey, free lunch. I have postulated that really, this is a ploy by the company to see how low they can make their employees prostitute themselves. Apparently the going rate is a $6 lunch :-). Actually, in our group, Tuesday is a “holy day” of Chipotle – everyone always goes to lunch at Chipotle on Tuesday (though I usually don’t go). So a bunch of people decided that they would still go to Chipotle, but they stopped by our cafeteria to get a $6 “lunch” of chips, cookies, pop and snacks. I just ate my lunch.

The other thing is that they have a weekly trivia contest every Wednesday. First person with the most correct answers gets a $25 gift card. I answered the first one (10 questions long) last week in 11 minutes. I’ve been sweating all week to see if I won. Results came out today and lo and behold I won. When I went over to collect my prize, I saw that I was also fastest this week. So if all my answers were correct, I should win again next week.

So that got me thinking – maybe I should just stay down here – $25 bucks and a free lunch every week – sounds good to me!!

Here’s the 2 trivia contests, if you’re interested in playing along. Fair warning – I used Google and the Wikipedia plentifully. Questions 3, 6 and 9 of both contests are Luxottica based, so if you’re not an employee you might have trouble with them.

Trivia 18:
1. Olivia Newton-John was raised in Australia, but where was she born?
2. Who bounced back to No. 1 with “Maria” in 1999?
3. In what Chinese Capital City did LensCrafters’ open their flagship store?
4. How old was Sid Vicious when he died?
5. Which songwriter’s songs included “Hound Dog” and “Spanish Harlem”?
6. Who is Elizabeth?
7. Martin Kemp was formally with which successful band?
8. Whose 1990 album Violator remains their best-selling original album?
9. Which annual event do children collect used glasses for Gift of Sight?
10. Who wrote the Jimi Hendrix hit “All Along The Watchtower”?

Trivia 19:
1. Which singer had a 1995 U.K. No. 1 with “Boombastic”?
2. UB40 had a 1983 No. 1 in the U.K. with which song?
3. On February 27, 2006 – Luxottica Group announced a ten-year licence agreement with what company?
4. Graham Nash left which U.K. group to form Crosby, Stills And Nash?
5. What was Right Said Fred’s only U.K. No. 1?
6. Today, Licensed brands are located in 1,337 locations. How many locations does each brand have?
7. Which band released the album Surrealistic Pillow?
8. What was the only U.K. No.1 single from Michael Jackson’s Thriller allbum?
9. If Neuman delivers your mail, Who delivers your shipped deliveries?
10. Which rapper worked with Curtis Mayfield on a re-mix of “Superfly” in 1990?