We had a going away dinner for the project director last Thursday at some fancy Italian restaurant in the Tech Center. My boss (project manager), his boss (director of IT), his boss (General Manager), and her boss (Vice President) were there, plus a few coworkers, making about 12 or so in all.
There were several bottles of Chianti served, but I didn't have any because I didn't really feel like I could relax with this group. Or didn't care too. Anyway, the veep and I got to talking about CSU. She asked if I went there and I said yes and she said she had too.
I said something like 'Right on. The Aggies'. The Aggies is the original name for CSU people. Its the Rams these days and it's been the Rams for quite a while. I refer to them as Aggies probably as much as the Rams because I think it's a cooler name and calling them the Rams is a little to obvious. Anyway, the veep is older, maybe in her 50-60s? I have no idea.
She replied 'Wait. I'm not that old. They were still the Rams when I went there. I don't think they were the Aggies past like 1950 or something.'
'I just like calling them the Aggies. I wasn't trying to say anything.'
So, just making some inane chit chat and I manage to insult the vice president. No wonder I didn't think I could relax around these people. I suppose they found me pretty uptight and stiff cause they were getting pretty well gone with all that wine. Fair enough. If I was hanging out with people I did get along with, they wouldn't take anything I said the wrong way and if they had a problem with something I said they would probably reply with something like 'Fuck off' or 'Kiss my ass punk'. Which I can deal with.
This is the sort of thing that I always have in the back of my mind when I am hanging out with people I am not really comfortable with. It's hard to be specific, but I think I can tell when some other person and I aren't really going to ever be on the same wavelength so to speak.
For example, at meetings, the Director of IT will sometimes make jokes and pretty much I never laugh, or fake laugh even just to be polite. For one, he's not that funny, two, the stuff that really is kind of humorous to me, like our 'Smart Goals 2007', is something that he reminds us is 'Critical'. (He said the word critical about them over 3 times in this one meeting.)
It's rare that I get very friendly with the boss. Some I flat out hate. Some are good bosses but I don't want to hang out with them particularly. Some I have been friendly with. The guys who you can grab a beer with and who you can talk straight to about how fucked up things are and don't talk like corporate automatons when they aren't in the office.
Anyway, I am going to continue my policy of avoiding fancy pants Italian restaurants and favoring bars that specialize in beer and shots and people refer to other people as 'motherfucker' and everyone is cool.
