The bags of the women [Author unknown]

Within walking distance to the destination, a hand plunges into the bag, easily convinced to find the object you are looking for. After all, each object has its space and has a hand knows them all.

On one side we have the cosmetics: lipstick, blush; eye shadow, hand cream, soap; wipes, another lipstick, hair brush, a hand disinfectant, a nail kit.

The paper tissues are in the bag .- as are the mobile phones.

ON the other side we have all the object of practical use: glasses (to read, not read, for sun), keys (home, office, the car); pens, one for pinchavelho hang the bag, a knife, a small flashlight (yes ... you never know ...); gloves.

At the center, always protected: wallet (always huge, loaded with cards, stamps and papers, more than bills), the purse; the agenda; the checkbooks, the block notes.

And there goes hand in hand to wander in the midst of everything. it already pulled out two bundles of keys, which are not the thing we are looking for . the bag is taken from the shoulder. The eyes peering at it through all the darkness caused by depth of it. One hand-scans through the while the other supports it search.

Once more, still in disbelief we start looking up a support - a wall, a stair, landing or handrails, anything counter that depth throughout.

The bag expands. Shortens and widens. Now everything seems easier, more exposed.

Now both hands are in the bag, rummaging through the bag, looking...

we are in despair, The will to turn everything upside down increases. You look around and conclude that its annoying.

This is where the heart starts beating faster, the moment we conclude that the key, that THE key is not there.

Probably it was inside another bag...

The one we used yesterday ...

The one with the reflection

Three years ago to this date we has our first "sit-down" meeting. Soft-skills training (aka: do's and don't-s while working".

Crash course to know one another, we shared individual experiences, some where even shushed on the way... But we learned about values, call handling, being nice on the phone, how to answer back, heck even how to smile forcing a pencil through our mouths to help the facial muscles relax.

We endured a 3 day training with at least 45•C and no air-conditioning! We ate smarties! We drew a lot. We coloured even more. We all sung "respect" by Aretha. We improved our communication skills. We learned how to juggle - which let's face it... not all of us managed to do straight ahead [for me it's a struggle to juggle : I blame my coordination that took a few days off :) ]

Juggling we never really stopped doing, I guess we kept on getting better at it.. But that first day spirit  perdured alongside in the last 3 years. Because that is what it was. First days of lost souls, in despair when that phone would ring. A4 pages going up in the air with the word "MAC ?" on them. All running around to try to answer the questions in due time

But there we had just the beginning of many groups to come, and a future was about to be written, right there as we were living & sharing so much time together.

We have gathered so many adventures together that placed us together or significantly apart - nevertheless we try to remain as one group sharing these floors.

And each little group deserves special thanks:

MY sistas: that put up with us with for every goddamn stupid question we (I) had so far and all the ones to still to come, and that outside of working hours, provided me of all the support that I needed to be standing on my two feet and helped me to get back up whenever I needed!! You have been a pilar in my human education, thought me so well, that I all words that I'll ever manage to gather will never express the gratitude of what I am feeling right now.

To the initial tinB or what's left of it: dislexic girl, ramena specially because we had to endured a LOT alongside , we have come a long way since ;)

To my brothers in arms: special thanks for being such a kick-ass team. Many things would have not turned out to be if only one would have done something different. For good and for bad we were there supporting one another, we still managed to laugh at the end of the day. Have you not realised yet ;). See? I can be NICE

And then to the other girls & boys... those many histories we once were forced to share together, eventually made us to some sort of an EXTREMELY dysfunctional tribe, that works so well together.

And because I believe at this point I have bored you to death [ don't dare!!] I will leave you now and get back to work [or at least try to get something done]

The crazy one ;)