Four Men and an Intern cont ... Part 3

Awkward Situation #3

Alright, sometimes I say stupid things when I feel uncomfortable. I don’t know how many people this happens too, but for me it seems to happen more than it should. So it was a typical day at Marketing Matters, Inc., toward the end of my three-month internship, and toward the end of the summer. By this time I had the best relationship with Mike, because I worked with him the most. He was a short, stout, fairly young military guy with two young kids. He swore a lot but was really nice to me because I got things done and kept the office organized. He’s not a joker, either. Very straight forward.

Well, Mike was standing with the other graphic designers talking while Jon was out of the office, and a client dropped off some little promo gifts. You know, the kind of pointless freebies that you’d never use in your day-to-day lives, but it's supposed to be the nice guesture that counts. Well, I thought it may be a good opportunity for me to socialize with the guys a little, so I ventured out of my office and stood with them, looking over the useless goodies. I called dibs on a small car that was really a pen when you pulled the cap (or the hood) off. I couldn’t think of anything to say after that so I just walked back to my office.

I tried to pull the cap off the pen and couldn’t get it off. Instead of just throwing the pen away, I thought I’d try again at my attempt to be social. I walked back out and joined the threesome. I held the pen out and said something about how tricky it was to open. Mike took it from me and of course opened it in a second. Now they were all looking at me for lack of anything else to do. Me, feeling flushed and on the spot, blurted out, “technology these days!” No laughing, just Mike’s hard stare and silence. Another failed attempt and now I felt retarded. Back to the office. No more attempts to be social that day.