I worked on site for a client today, which meant taking a bus route that I normally don't ride along. Within three stops I had a request for spare change, a bus token and a kind gentleman asked me if I wanted to learn more about his relationship with God and how it could help me.

All of this happened while I had my headphones and sunglasses on. ;)

What impressed me most with these requesters was that everyone was so darn friendly. The first gentleman got the apple from my lunch. the second received a "sorry," and the third, a polite, "No thanks, I have to listen to this report before I get to the office."

Of course, I was listening to INXS at the time, but he didn't need to know that. Oddly enough, "The Devil Inside" was playing. LOL

When I arrived, my supervisor put a finger to his lips and nodded at the wall between the office we were sharing and the meeting room next to it. It doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling so we get to hear everything going on. Someone was having a meeting. Without saying a word I organized all my crap (Diet Coke, snacks, hand sanitizer, chocolate fountain, family photos...okay, I'm kidding about some of these) and was happily preparing to get down to work when I heard:

"But it really wasn't clear what I should do in my situation," a man said in a whiny tone. "I had already taken some NyQuil and I passed out almost immediately."

"Most people would call in sick when they decide to stay home," said a woman. "That way we know that you won't be showing up instead of wondering where you are."

Pages flipped and she added: "We called your house twice and there was no answer."

"Oh, I turned off the phone in my bedroom so I wouldn't be disturbed."

Oh yeah, that's a really good thing to do when you're taking a sick day. This guy had moves I hadn't even considered. Too bad I'm freelancing. ;)

The woman sighed. "There's also the the time you disappeared from the office last week for an hour after having only just arrived. You missed a key meeting."

"Oh, I needed to move my car," the man said. "I was parked at a meter but I only had a quarter. Then I had to find a free place to park and the only one was really far away. It took me a while to get back to the office, but it wasn't an hour."

"How long was it then?"

"No more than 45 minutes."

"I see." The woman (I assumed) flipped some more pages. "You didn't tell anyone where you were going and you missed a meeting."

"People leave the office all the time to go for coffee or lunch," he said. "I don't know why this is such a problem. At least I came back."

And that's when my supervisor and I had to leave our office and race to the kitchen so that we could laugh out loud. I think this guy is gonna be the Employee of the Month.

Or maybe he just needs to take the bus. ;)

Labels: ,