The Ghost of Offices Past

When we make a pot of coffee in the morning, we turn off the machine so the coffee doesn't burn. If we want a second cup, we reheat it in the microwave. Which I'm sure is a whole 'nother brand of bad for you but whatever. Yesterday, I left the burner on and the smell of the coffee heating in that coffee pot on my counter took me back immediately to my first office job. Ain't sense memory grande? Aren't I glad I took those method acting classes when I was in my 20's? It was then I realized that an office smelling of burned coffee is a thing of the past. Everyone has those thermoses now, or espresso machines. While the coffee is better, I miss that smell. The same way I miss thermal fax paper and standing in front of a photocopier for hours on end and cleaning every phone in the office with a can of Lysol every single night because my boss was a germaphobe freak. Which is to say, not at all. I don't really miss it, but I look back fondly on the burned coffee and my ink stained hands and the fact that I never had to stay one minute past 5:00pm.