My first involvement in office politics

Yesterday I bumped into Evissa on my walk to work. Apparently she walks to work too. It was kinda funny, cause at one point we were walking behind this guy, and we both walk pretty fast, then the guy suddenly stops, and she walks right into him. He says something like "stop walking up my ass" and we both walk away laughing. What an idiot. I hate people who stop abruptly in the middle of the street.

Once we got to our building, ended up catching the same lift as Nunjo. Just said hey to her and spoke to Evissa, before she got off. Then Nunjo turned to me and smiled, and I smiled back, almost as if it was some secret connection we had.

At the end of the day, she kinda stopped me in the corridor near the photocopying room to talk. I had to catch DS before he left so kept glancing at his door, and she would do the same following me, as if to see what I was looking at. When she mentioned bumping into Lincoln, I lost my attention then and there and just walked off as she printed something.

Today, I walked past her room and saw her holding her phone. I asked if she was playing the drawing game and she said no but she would now. She asked if it was her turn and I said yes. I went in and saw her guess my drawing. It was David Beckham, and she was having trouble getting it until I gave her a few clues. I then walked out and went back to my room.

I was working and then heard her say "your turn". I looked up but she was already gone. I logged in and completed my turn.

I got the call today offering me an SLO interview. I tried to pick the latest date so chose 30/3. Everyone else also got one, so nothing special at this stage I guess.

There was an explosion in office politics today. I had a mention in the morning, not realising it was meant to be at noon, so mentioned it and then returned at noon. But even at noon, defence was late. They sent an agent who turned up at 12:30pm. Then I got into this whole mess with the Mag about the sequence numbers, and she couldn't be bothered doing it past 1pm so asked me to sort it out over lunch. I did, and then went to Chris' trial, which I was supposed to be doing. She was cool about it and did it. I also bumped into Rom in there, as she is appearing for one of the accused.

I went back to my courtroom at 2pm and got the matter done, then went back to the office. Earlier in the day Mary had asked me about Chris' trial and when I said I had to sit in for the rest of the week, she objected and said she'd speak to DS. I said she didn't have to but she insisted. But when she tried, he was already talking to someone in his room.

So now that I'm back at the office, this has all happened and DS has asked to see me. He said he's sticking by the decision to keep me in the trial, and that both Chris and I have to report to him. I told Chris and she said she knew Mary would chuck a stink. I said I didn't know why and she said it was because she felt threatened by Imad. Hmmm.

Now I feel like I'm a child forced to choose between two arguing parents. I just want to do my work, I don't want to take sides. I wonder why DS is pushing so hard for this. Does he think I don't have enough on my application? Does he think I'll screw up the interview? Is it because he isn't on the panel and won't have an influence?

I also wonder why Mary did what she did. Is it really because of Imad? Why is there such a divide between our teams? In the morning when I was talking to Mary and Nunjo, she said she didn't want me going to their side of the floor. Nunjo also said I couldn't leave as I was the only man in the team  - does that mean she would miss me?

Argh, I feel so torn. I wonder if this has created something of a permanent nature between Mary and me. Does she understand I'm just an innocent bystander in the middle? I know this will blow over, but can't wait until it does.

I went to the gym after finishing at 8pm at work.