2006-07-28 23:00:00
Do you know the muffin man?
Hmm, so I guess in order for you to understand this story, you need to hear two smaller stories first. All names of people (except mine) and buildings will be changed for the saftey of everyone involved.Story 1: So I was walking around the cool building one day and noticed a name on a cube I didn't recognize. I glanced over and saw a blonde standing there, back towards me. I kept walking, because if I didn't I'd end up staring... and that's not good. Since she sits beside Megan, who is Scott's girlfriend (I work with Scott just about every day), I asked her who this new girl was. Megan told me her name was Jill and that she was an intern. So I inquired, "A hot intern?" Megan chuckled a little and said, "Yeah, she's pretty." So, being a sysadmin, I had many tricks up my sleeve that I could use to invoke a conversation with Jill. I could shut down her network drop and answer her helpdesk call about no network conenctivity. I could send her a bunch of spam and take that helpdesk call. I could also just stop in and make something up. Something like, "I was recabling the comm room and thought I might have disconnected your drop. Do you mind if I check everything out?" But, being the ethical sysadmin that I am, I couldn't do this. It's just cheap. Plus, that's all I need is to be known as the tech support guy. That's not an easy cast to work out of. There had to be another way.
Story 2: I was in Scott's cube from Monday to Wednesday migrating mailboxes from our two old servers to our two new servers. It's normal for Megan to instant message Scott throughout the day, and being right beside Scott, I can read his screen quite easily. Yes... Scott knows this. Wednesday morning Megan messaged Scott, "I'm hungry. I want a blueberry muffin." Being in the middle of this important work, Scott couldn't leave, and Megan never got her blueberry muffin. What made this funny, is that seconds later Megan emailed a picture of a blueberry muffin to Scott.
Real Story: So 3PM came and I went home. We finished our work, work that's been very important and, at some times, very mind numbing. Since I worked 17 hours from the previous Friday to Sunday doing the prep work for this migration, I had plenty of hours saved to make up for the two I'd be missing by leaving early.
It was almost time to go to bed when I had an idea. To be funny, I was going to stop at Perkins and get Megan her blueberry muffin the next morning. The next day came and I stopped at Perkins, but I had another idea. I would buy two muffins. One for Megan, and one for Jill (who I still haven't met yet). I stopped into the cool building (the one I don't work at) and walked up to their cubes. Unlucky for me, neither of them had made it in yet. I couldn't take the muffins with me... I mean, I could have, but I didn't want to eat two muffins. So I set Megan's muffin on her desk and, at the risk of seeming really creepy, set the other (apple cinnamon) on Jill's desk. Then I went to the not so cool building (where I work) and waited.
Some time passed, I'd say it was about 8:30AM, before I got an email from Megan. Here's how the email flowed:
- Megan: You wouldn't have happened to be in the cool building this morning were you?
- Me: Ummmmmm, it's possible.
- Megan: Ha ha well if not then there is a muffin fairy! So if you were, thank you very much, that was sweet of you and a good way to start my morning. If you weren't then tell the muffin fairy thanks for me :)
- Me: The muffin fairy says you're welcome! Also, if Jill is wondering how a muffin appeared on her desk, the muffin fairy bought two...
- Megan: Ha ha wow the muffin fairy rocks! Jill was afraid to eat it a first thinking maybe it wasn't gor her, I just filled her in haha :)
So now Jill knows it was me who delivered the muffin, but she still doesn't know who I am. What now? I was just going to wait a little bit to see what happens. But it wasn't long until another email arrived in my inbox.
- Jill: Hi there! Word on the street says that you are the muffin man. However, I do not know the muffin man (cheesy I know). But I wanted to say thanks for the absolutely scrumptious treat! It was the most suspense filled morning I have had here so far. I stared at the muffin for about an hour, wondering if this was some kind of test. I broke down around 9:15am and gave in to its enticing taste and glistening appearance. Meg just now explained it to me but July 27, 2006 will forever remain the day of the mystery muffin!
- Me: Well, the muffin man lives on Drury Lane (aka the not so cool building). You're very welcome for the treat! I hope it was still warm. It just came out of the oven when I bought them. As I was reading your message, I was picturing you staring at the muffin (even thought I have no idea what you look like) as if it was a horror movie. The muffin didn't eat you or anything... ;) If I don't forget, I'll stop over so you can actually meet the muffin man.
- Me: So you're not surprised when you see me I thought I'd send you a picture... ;)
- Jill: Hahahaha, that mady my day! Hilarious!
- Jill: On that note, this is what I looked like when I ate the muffin. I told you it was good!
Wow. It was pretty apparent that this girl was super-duper and had a great sense of humor. I had to stop over to meet her. Well, lunch passed and I had a meeting that lasted til 3:30PM. I had no reason to go to the cool building, but I told Jill I wouldn't forget to stop over, so I got in my vehicle and went over.
I walked up to her cube, peeked in, hiding behind her filing cabinet, and said, "Do you know the muffin man?" She turned around with the biggest smile you've ever seen. We talked for about 20 minutes (she was leaving at 4PM so I didn't want to keep her). Well, she talked, I kind of stumbled over words and said things that didn't make sense. Ok, it wasn't that bad, I was nervous. But we seemed to like each other. She wasn't appalled by me and I was in awe :)
So Friday came around but Jill already had plans for lunch. Either way, a bunch of us went out to Ponderosa. I was standing in line about to order when Joe said, "Are you the muffin man?" That caught me off my guard. I asked, "How did you hear about that?" So he informed me that he heard it from a friend who knows Jill. Some of them were at the Pony when Jill and some of her friends came in to do some karaoke. Jill must have told the story about the muffin man to Joe's friend, who, in turn, told Jow, who, in turn, told me. Wow, everyone knows what I did. That's awesome! I didn't expect that. I just wanted to meet Jill. I didn't know this was turning into a classic epic.
But the journey is not yet over. No, it has just begun.
Back