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An Unwanted Visitor
Feb. 11th, 2005 06:47 pmSo, the other day when I came in to work, I noticed there was this hat hanging on the corner of a cubicle next my section. The cubicle is directly across from one of the bathrooms, so my assumption is someone had taken it off before going to the bathroom and had forgotten they left it there. Being that the cubicle it was hanging on is generally empty, it is pretty common for people to stow things there while they are in the bathroom. In essence, it was nothing out of the ordinary. At least, to me.
Almost immediately, random people were coming by asking whose hat it was and where it came from. I would always answer the same way, "It's been here since I arrived, it was probably just left by someone going to the bathroom." More and more people came by that morning asking about or even ranting about it as they passed. I mean it wasn't anything particularly crazy looking, just a grey winter hat with a small bill from what I could tell. Still, it seemed as if it was being viewed as some sort of invader making all of these people uncomfortable. I began to think people's reactions to it were quite funny, albeit a little bizarre.
It all finally culminated in one of the supervisors from a nearby department stomping over and asking me about the hat. I told her my pat response, now getting a bit annoyed myself and almost ready to write it down and post it outside my own cubicle: "For those asking about the suspicious hat: I know nothing about it's origins. It was probably just accidentally left by someone using the bathroom." Anyway, she groaned and grabbed the hat, talking about how "disgusting" it was that someone had left it there and that she was going to throw it away. I could hear her as she made her way over to her nearby section and triumphantly announced that she had disposed of the hat. I could even hear people almost cheering her on.
It was such a bizarre incident. The poor innocent hat was just quietly hanging on the corner of the cubicle, minding its own business, and then it had to be disrespectfully disposed of like it was plague ridden.
Poor, poor hat.
R.I.P.
Almost immediately, random people were coming by asking whose hat it was and where it came from. I would always answer the same way, "It's been here since I arrived, it was probably just left by someone going to the bathroom." More and more people came by that morning asking about or even ranting about it as they passed. I mean it wasn't anything particularly crazy looking, just a grey winter hat with a small bill from what I could tell. Still, it seemed as if it was being viewed as some sort of invader making all of these people uncomfortable. I began to think people's reactions to it were quite funny, albeit a little bizarre.
It all finally culminated in one of the supervisors from a nearby department stomping over and asking me about the hat. I told her my pat response, now getting a bit annoyed myself and almost ready to write it down and post it outside my own cubicle: "For those asking about the suspicious hat: I know nothing about it's origins. It was probably just accidentally left by someone using the bathroom." Anyway, she groaned and grabbed the hat, talking about how "disgusting" it was that someone had left it there and that she was going to throw it away. I could hear her as she made her way over to her nearby section and triumphantly announced that she had disposed of the hat. I could even hear people almost cheering her on.
It was such a bizarre incident. The poor innocent hat was just quietly hanging on the corner of the cubicle, minding its own business, and then it had to be disrespectfully disposed of like it was plague ridden.
Poor, poor hat.
R.I.P.
