..or something like that. You slogged through my morning rant – thank you. In return I give you one of my more embarrassing moments to underscore the importance of paying attention to the details, even if you are a ‘big picture’ kinda person.
Whenever I visited our offices in London, I stayed on the same floor, followed the same path to and from the elevators, the coffee-room, the loo. I knew how to get access to the stairwells for every so often, physical exercise took priority over waiting for the lift with a cup of takeaway from Cafe Nero in hand. Fair enough..
Until the one visit when I was sitting on the eighth floor. I was next door to one of our DC associates who had recently transferred to the UK. We would chat on and off during my week’s stay – he was a great young man with a rockin’ sense of humor and mischief. Each day, I followed the same route that I knew – the floors were rectangular – eventually you’d get where you needed to be even if you have no sense of direction (I was born without this gene).
You know where this is going – all week, I visited the men’s room instead of the ladies. I saw the urinal, which struck me as somewhat different from the ladies’ on the other floor, but thought little else about it. I never saw another person while I was in there, though I did hear hand washing (a good sign I always think). Friday morning, I thought I’d make one quick visit before leaving for the airport. And I saw the little symbol that is universally known for ‘men’. I ran back to my office and asked my US pal, if he had been watching me go to the wrong loo all week. He of course busted out laughing, acknowledging that he had been waiting for me to put my glasses on and realize what I was doing. I wish I could tell you that my mortification lasted for a long time – but he was laughing so hard and this was so typical of me – I just shook my head, blushing. Little did I know this would become a local story in the London office for years to come, and someone routinely placed a large sign on the ladies’ room door when I was in town – bless their heart. Don’t tell me you’ve never done something like that – of course you have, right? Right?
Waiting for the Karma Truck 