Classic

3/11/2003

I've been working on an entry that has a bunch of photos and some "catch-up" writing but I just read an entry by another writer that prompted me to put this few words down, lest of course, I forget.

I kind of knew I was in trouble when my new boss came up to me the second morning of our California meetings with this gigantic smile on his face. Ok, so maybe there was an additional clue in the shaking of his sides and the twinkle in his eye.

But in an instant, I knew.

Hey, I'm new with this organization, how was I supposed to know?

I mean everyone gets to be the butt of a joke once in a while, right?

Right?

But then, how often do you get to be the morning entertainment?

I got to the meeting right on time, and found a nice place in the back of the room.

I think there were only 200 people in the room.

That's not so many is it?

You see, sometimes I can be really reserved, and then at other times, if you plop me down in the middle of a group of people, say at dinner, I tend to try and engage folks in some kind of meaningful conversation.

Come on... what's more boring than sitting at one of those big tables when no one speaks.

So there I wax, talking away with my immediate department associate when there was a lull in the conversation. All of a sudden the man to my immediate left started to talk to me. As we were talking I leaned forward a bit and reached for his name tag and turned it so that I could read it. Since everyone's tag told what office they were associated with, I was looking for conversational material.

No city on this tag.

"Nice to meet you Mike. What do you do here?"

Mike chuckled. "Nothing" he replied.

All of a sudden a gong went off in my head. Mike... Uh oh.. Mike...

Mike as in retiring CEO of the company Mike.

Oops

It's said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

It ended up that we had a nice conversation, me being new and all with the company.. how the hell was I supposed to know?

So of course when Mike stood up to give his "going away speech" the next morning I knew all about who was going to be the morning entertainment.

I don't even think he got past the first sentence and there he was asking if NSR from Detroit was in the audience.

I waved from the back of the room....

His instant replay was right on the money, and they all howled.

Nothing like a good classic shared moment.

Management says they don't think they are going to let me out in public again.