Tales of a Post-It Ninja

A couple of months ago, war broke out in my office building. There are seven non-profits who are housed in my building and we all share a kitchen, restrooms, foyer and weirdly, a shower.* The battleground of this war was the kitchen, the cause - dishes left out (both dirty and clean) and the weapon of choice: passive aggressive notes about how your actions are making kittens sad. (I am not kidding - that was actual note text.)

Now, understand, I don't want to clean up after people who did not emerge from my womb - it's a thing. But, still. We all get busy. If you rinse your plate and put it in the sink, I truly don't see why someone else (often me) can't come along and unload the dishwasher and throw your stinkin' plate in. We are not talking about really disgusting dishes, here. Everything had been rinsed and left in the sink. Also, everything in most cases is a coffee mug and spoon, but is occasionally a bowl and spoon.

The note writer also seems to believe that clean dishes left on the counter to dry attract bugs. I am at a loss. Some of my dishes in my kitchen belong out and they don't seem to attract bugs. But I digress.

The point is that I find the whole Note War of 2012 to be stupid. I was going to say immature or a waste of time or ridiculous, but frankly, this warrants a stupid. We're all adults, right?

So, in a fit of weirdness, I wrote "You look perfect just the way you are," on a post-it note and put it on the bathroom mirror. A sort of Pants You to all the note writers. And a positive Pants You.

And you know what? Even though I was the note writer, I found myself reading that note every time I washed my hands. I read it and smiled and walked back to my desk at the salt mines just a little happier. And I figured that if it was doing that for me... Also, people must like it a little, because as opposed to the kitchen notes which get ripped down every few days, my note stayed there for a whole month. And then I took it down.

And replaced it. The second note said, "You look amazing, now go BE amazing."

Yesterday, I replaced the note again.

Don't be like the rest of them, darling!

I know I'm not the first person to be a post-it ninja. Here's a Flikr group about it. But, I am actually sort of in love with this. Every time I walk out of the kitchen, it's scowling and every time I walk out of the bathroom, it's smiling, and that - in the humdrum never-ending daily grind of work - is worth it.

What do you think? Also, what else should I say? I have a million quotes, but most of them are too long for a post it.

*Not in the sense of sharing a shower, just in the sense that there is one in our building. Someone used it a couple of years ago when they had no power. Mostly, it's a tornado shelter.