Your Nerd Is Showing

I work at a place that has an IT team. This is so very different from my previous job where we had an IT guy, and he worked in a different office, which was a full hour drive away from our facility.

Here, we have six members of the IT team, two of which work at another plant, which is less than a mile away. The other four work about fifty steps from my desk.

These guys pass my desk multiple times a day.

One afternoon, one of the IT guys happened to stop for a minute for a quick chat. He mentioned his cats. He said he has a few that live in his garage and one that lives in his house.

He explained that the house cat used to be his neighbor’s cat but said neighbor didn’t take care of kitty and so kitty became IT guy’s cat. Kitty lives in the house because IT guy doesn’t want neighbor to get any ideas about taking kitty back.

I told him he was a hero for taking kitty out of a bad situation.

Then he told me that kitty’s name is Bat Man.

I immediately asked, “Do you sometimes call him Bruce?”

IT guy’s eyes lit up and he smiled, as if thrilled that someone had actually asked that question. Still smiling, he answered, “Yes, yes, I do.”

We shared a nerdy laugh and the conversation ended.

There’s no point to this story whatsoever except to point out that sometimes you’re surprised to find fellow nerds and sometimes, you get to surprise fellow nerds with your own nerdiness.

That day I let my nerd flag fly.