Timing is Everything

How was I supposed to know? The simple fact is, there was no way for me to know. So why do I feel like such a jerk, yet find the whole thing funny at the same time?

I was totally dragging yesterday at work. Coffee alone wasn't doing it. I said hello to Sandy who sits next to me. I tried to be nice and start a little conversation. Sandy would have none of it and was giving me these really short, curt answers. I assumed it was because she was pissed I was sitting next to her and she knew that peace and quiet in the workplace was completely and totally over. My old cube was upstairs where the cool sales people all sat and we had a pretty good time. Since I started back part time, I had been cast in the pit with the other part times and CSR's. If I was going to survive, I needed to wake up and I needed to get the party started down here. A little rockin' music was needed. Since I was recently moved from the fun floor to the no-fun first floor, I decided Billy Idol's Dancing With Myself was an appropriate theme song for the morning. I quickly found the song on You Tube, cranked my speakers up and got my groove on.

To make the morning even better, the Internet was working poorly so the song kept stopping and starting, right when I was really starting to feel it. So I had no choice but to keep starting it all over. After 15 minutes of Billy and (finally) a complete playing of the song, I wheeled around in my chair, "Billy Idol totally rocks!" I looked around the office to see who was with me on my love of Idol. To my surprise, there were no high fives waiting, just a lot of blank looks. In fact, Sandy was now crying. I though, "What the Fuck? This floor sucks....who doesn't like Idol? Something must be up."

So I emailed one of the ladies upstairs, "Dude, whats up with Sandy, she's like crying and all I did was play some Idol."

She replied, " She's a wreck. Her husband left this weekend!"

I quickly typed back, "Are you kidding me?!! Jesus Christ! I've been playing Dancing With Myself since like 8:05 this morning!"

Seconds later her response flashed across my screen, " You IDIOT!!!!!"

I suppose the dissolution of a marriage is grounds for a temporary loss of love for Idol. It would also explain the looks I got from everyone else, who was in the know. Although, I think the song is clearly appropriate for the situation. It could be argued that my timing was probably a bit off. It might be appropriate for the Acceptance phase of grieving. At the moment, she's clearly in the Depression stage of grief. When she hits Angry I could play Alanis Morisette, maybe next week I should focus on Patsy Kline or Billy Holiday. I have no idea what to do for Bartering. Maybe the Lets Make a Deal theme music???