That Guy

No one wants to be that guy. I remember very well management at my last company even giving us all lectures about not being that guy, right before events especially the big ones like the national yearly recognition trip. But there is always one. I was happy that when I did go on the recognition trip, I actually knew the person that turned out to be that guy and I actually witnessed the event that gave him the title. It was the beginning of the last evening when we were all bussed to a nice restaurant for dinner before the awards ceremony. One of my teammates had already had a few drinks and stumbled into the fountain. He recovered very nicely, but not in time to avoid the title. When the very first speech was made that night the incident was mentioned. It happens in an instant and then you are stuck being that guy.

So Thursday night when I got home around 10pm, there was water gushing into my garage. When I got upstairs I realized the entire building was without water. I assumed someone else in the building had already called the proper authorities. I also prayed that since LA is always short on water, someone would come out to fix it in the middle of the night. Wishful thinking. I woke up on Friday morning unable to take a shower, brush my teeth or wash my face. Disgusting. Thank God it was not a Monday. While I was out in the field I decided to call the building manager just in case the situation had not been reported. She called me back and left me a message telling me that it was already in the process of being fixed. And that the situation was caused by the tenants in unit 7 who had run into the pipe in the garage and broke it. As annoyed as I was, with the inconvenience I immediately realized there was a worse person to be in this scenario......that guy.