Despite the deadline to catch, I sometimes feel so bored and sleepy. How do I usually overcome this? I either drink tons of coffee or observe the people around me. There’s no partition between the desks so it’s very tempting to do this.

Here’s a list of people who sometimes entertain me pique my interest.

1. He’s seated 2 rows away from me. I’m always sleepy in the office, and I’m pretty sure that some people notice my eyes drooping, but this guy makes me less guilty. Why? He’s always extremely sleepy that he looks like he’s drunk. Thus, we gave him the code name “hubog”, the Bisaya word for “drunk”.

2. He’s probably the only (a little bit) irritating person in the office. He’s seated across Idel, the only Filipino officemate I have in the office. When Idel and I start talking, even if it’s entirely work-related, he gives us this “stop-talking-look”. He’s nice at times but prone to mood swings. He’s my team leader (sort of) and not only does he give me tasks, he corrects my Japanese grammar, too (which is OK for me).

3. He was once our team leader. At first, he seemed scared to approach us. His face always turns red when talking, so we call him “pula”, the Bisaya word for “red”. The most distinct behavior of this guy is that he can’t stay in his desk for too long. He keeps on walking around the office, just like a supervisor.

4. He’s uncommonly very short even for a Japanese guy (about 4’5″), but he has a booming voice. I think he’s already a team leader. When he talks to his team, everybody could hear him. He seems to drag his feet when walking and the sound of it sometimes gets on my nerves. We call him “putot”, the Bisaya word for “short”.

5. We call him “phone guy”. The reason is obvious: when I see him in the corridor, he’s always talking to somebody in his cellphone.

6. His code name is “densha guy”. Another obvious reason: he closely resembles the lead actor of the famous Japanese drama series “Densha Otoku”.

7. He’s very tall and very slim. His hairstyle is so anime-like and he has this habit of plucking off some hair strands. We call him “kuhit”, the Bisaya word for a “stick” or “pole”.

8. I don’t really know why many of the Japanese lady try to “soften” their voice. The effect sometimes is far from being a music to my ears. There’s this lady from another team who makes me feel like banging my head on the desk when she speaks.

9. She’s an HR personnel and I sometimes wish I have her height and charm. She’s exceptionally tall for a Japanese lady, at about 5’6″.

10. She’s seated a row away from me. I sometimes wonder how she feels being different from most of the Japanese ladies. Japanese ladies are usually petite and she’s far from it. She’s very nice, though.

11. He’s a few rows from where I’m seated. While everyone is very serious with the work at hand, this guy seems to be always in a good mood. He’s grinning all the time!

12. Just like me, this guy always arrives past 9:00AM. But when he says his “Ohayou gozaimasu” (“good morning”), everyone could hear him. For me, this is a good thing. I wish I could muster confidence and enthusiasm just like him, to say my greetings out loud.

13. He’s seated a few rows in front of me so he looks familiar already. One time, we went out of the office at the same time and after a few agonizing moments of trying to communicate in Japanese, I found out that he speaks English! He’s a Korean and I’m just glad he’s an addition to the people I could say “hi” to in the corridor.

That’s it! Mmmm, I wonder how my officemates see me. Am I irritating or another source of entertainment?