I decided to see if I could fool my co-workers, so Friday, I wore a tie, a nice Oxford shirt, a tie, and sunglasses. I practiced the lines, "I'm looking for some information on the English Major for my daughter, Caroline, who will be a freshman," moved my voice up from my chest to the back of my mouth, hunched my shoulders, and made sure to take small steps. As I walked into the office, I was sure to peer at everything as if I was looking for something, and as if everything was new. It helped that I was wearing big sunglasses instead of my regular glasses, so I really did have to peer at things.
One of my co-workers saw me wander in and asked if she could help me. I though for sure I'd be recognized--the sunglasses especially seemed a little Lady Gaga--but the haircut and altered stance made the perfect disguise. What was fascinating was that she said she looked up, saw the sunglasses, and built a narrative around some guy who'd just come in from the eye-doctor's office and had had his eyes dilated. Another co-worker came up to help--she thought I was visually impaired--and they both handed me things while I said filler things like, "Oh, yes; thank you. This will help," all the time peering at introduction to the major materials.
After about ninety seconds, I took off my sunglasses and said, "Boo." It took about five seconds for my True Identity to be processed, even with the sunglasses off. My Norwegian widow's peak (which I inherited from my grandmother) made it difficult for them to recognize that it was me. We had a good laugh -- it was about as much fun as the time I did the same thing to a previous co-worker 13 years ago on Halloween.
I got my boss the following Monday. Mark warned me that tricking one's boss might not be the wisest move, so I simply waited for her to come into the office while I faced away from her and held a notebook. She thought I was a vendor and said, "Hi, can I help y--whoa!!" And we laughed.
More Hair-jinx here: hair
More Hair-jinx here: hair
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