Not nearly there.

I'm not nearly at the end of Then We Came To The End, but I'm getting there. When I look back at what I've read, I realize that this book is made out of all these random thoughts, experiences, and feelings of coworkers--that, though completely random, interweave themselves in this great big pathway  leading to the impending doom of being laid-off. Every couple of pages, I find myself reaching for a nearby piece of paper, and tearing off scraps to mark hilarious passages, or witty comments.

But wait, not all is funny (yay) in this land of cubicles, but funny (nay). The weird, awkward kind of funny. In fact, one such funny-nay story surprises me--the story of Janine Gorjanc and her dead daughter.

It goes like this: Janine Gorjanc had a nine-year-old daughter who went missing one day. As her fellow coworkers became aware of her situation, they deemed it necessary to help. Thus, posters were created, taped to lamp-posts and various buildings around down town chicago, and one very-large billboard depicting her daughter's fourth-grade picture was put up, overseeing the highway as millions (I'm sure) of cars went by each day.

But then one day, the searching stopped. It was because Janine's daughter was found dead, wrapped in plastic, in a parking lot.

Slowly, but surely, everyone went back to work in their cubicles, and time went on. But not without the sadness and grief positively (negatively) radiating from Janine Gorjanc. As all mothers, who are grieving, Janine found herself in compromising situations, and doing unexplainable things.

Her nine-year-old daughter loved Toys R' Us, Gymboree's, and especially the play-pen with all the little plastic balls in the net at McDonalds. This was one of Janine's compromising situations in which she often found herself. Every single day, Janine would go to McDonalds, and sit quietly inside the play-pen, with all the little plastic balls around her, and stare off into space. Every single day. She became a spectacle of sorts to her fellow coworkers who caught her by chance when getting lunch. And then every single day, they as well, would go and watch her in the play-pen, and try to figure out just what was going on in that mysterious head of Janine Gorjanc.

It's such a sad, sad story. I mean, to find your own daughter wrapped in plastic, DEAD (strangled), when you had all the hope in the world prior to that, that she was still alive, sound, and healthy--that's just terrible. My parents tell me all the time: A parent should never outlive their child. What a depressing story. Anyway, that's all I'm given to sharing at the moment. Just thought it was the part that stands out the most in this book so far. Hasta la vista.