{"id":10404,"date":"2015-10-09T06:56:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T10:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=10404"},"modified":"2015-10-09T06:57:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T10:57:27","slug":"but-but-but-youre-wearing-jeans-and-boots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=10404","title":{"rendered":"But…But…But You’re Wearing Jeans and Boots!"},"content":{"rendered":"

A funny thing happened at the office as I was going into yet another meeting with muckity-mucks and the Big Cheese. This incident made me and the boss laugh so hard, I had to share…
\n
\nContext: I often am asked to attend meetings that involve management, including The Big Cheese (TBC) and sometimes Deputy Big Cheese. I have know TBC for over two decades, dating back to when I worked for another employer but came to the office of my current employer for occasional meetings. TBC has routinely seen me rather dressed down, especially on Fridays when (clean, non-frayed or holey) jeans are commonly worn by seasoned pros who enjoy the relaxed dress code.<\/p>\n

Context of meeting: first time NewGuy (who I wrote about before<\/a>) was asked to attend a meeting at which TBC was to attend. Several other management-types were also expected, including my regular boss, with whom I enjoy a friendly and great relationship.<\/p>\n

I walk up the stairs to TBC’s conference room, as it’s only one flight up. I arrive a little early, as I pride myself on punctuality, and take a seat in the middle of the table opposite the door.<\/p>\n

There I am — nice shirt with a collar (and tie, even), with denim jeans and a pair of black cherry caiman Lucchese Classics cowboy boots on my feet. But because I am seated at the table, all you can see is me in a shirt-and-tie.<\/p>\n

NewGuy arrived. I expected some nervousness from him, and I was not surprised to see him in a suit — and a new suit at that, even with what appeared to be new dress shoes (sigh….)<\/p>\n

NewGuy stopped right inside the door, looking a bit bewildered. (Candidly, he looked like a deer-in-the-headlights.)<\/p>\n

I thought he was trying to figure out where to sit since it is understandable that he was unfamiliar with unspoken office norms and TBC’s preferences. Ever being helpful, I suggested that he come sit next to me, opposite the usual place where TBC usually prefers to sit at the middle of the table (rather than the end.)<\/p>\n

Others were arriving for the meeting, including my boss, who quickly went around the other side of the table to sit to my left.<\/p>\n

As NewGuy was making his way around the table to sit on my right, I pushed my chair back and he suddenly realized what I was wearing. His jaw dropped, and then he stammered, “but, but, but, you’re wearing jeans and boots!”<\/p>\n

The second he said that, TBC entered the room and from across the table said, “well, [bhd] has always been a bit different, but I like how he thinks.”<\/p>\n

My boss and I exchanged a glance, and we both couldn’t help but burst into laughter (briefly, but we couldn’t hold it back). DPC also giggled a little bit. But TBC was all business… so we got right down to work. These 20-minute meetings are intense, but TBC has a heavy schedule, so we don’t waste a minute.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, my boss kept coming by my office at random times of the day and giggling while saying, “but… but… but…” then guffawing with gales of laughter. <\/p>\n

I finally saw NewGuy later and said, “you know, just like I said before, if you want me to help you select a new pair of boots that will compliment that new suit of yours, just let me know.” I don’t think his jaw has recovered from the dropping it continues to do, poor kid.<\/p>\n

Life is short: Let there be no “but…but…buts…” about it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A funny thing happened at the office as I was going into yet another meeting with muckity-mucks and the Big Cheese. This incident made me and the boss laugh so hard, I had to share…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-job"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}