Name That LADie

In an effort to give you a sneak peek into the wonderful world of LAD, we’ve created a new weekly column – Name That LADie! Every Friday for the next six weeks we’ll be posting an interesting anecdote or story told from the perspective of one LADie. While many of these stories may sound like a plotline from “The Office” they’re real – we have the scars to prove it.

So, enjoy the first installment in our name that LADie series, posted below. Your mission is to read the post and try to guess which staffer is featured center stage then post your theories in the comments section. One lucky poster will be selected to receive a shiny new travel mug…

A Legendary First Week of Work.

It was my first week of work. Friday to be exact. I strolled into work having had the past five months off for my last unofficial summer vacation after graduating from college, so you can imagine the shock my body was in to be waking up five days in a row before noon. I dropped my purse next to my desk, took off my coat and sat down to check the very few emails I was receiving. Yay, two junk emails! I was confident in my business clothes, my grown up planner and I had nailed down an internship at this PR firm called LAD communications. Oh and I forgot, I had brought into the office a sparkling new coffee travel mug, how could I forget?

So, moving on…

After toiling over my emails, I decided the tea in my travel mug was way too cold. Hmmm. I should probably warm it up a bit. By this time it was around 10:00 a.m. Shawn, our office manager, had made her way into the office and I had been introduced to her for the first time. Hopefully it isn’t true what they say about first impressions. I was still asleep as I dragged myself out of my chair, wandered into the back room to the microwave, placed my travel mug into the microwave – for 2 whole minutes – and headed back to my desk to check to see if anymore emails made their way to my Inbox.

About a minute passed before a co-worker made her way to the back room and SURPRISE! Fire in the microwave! I heard the scream and knew it was I. OMG, what did I do? Once we heard the yell, everyone was on their feet running to the back room to see what was going on. An employee, who has since been named MacGyver, grabs the fire extinguisher, pulls the key, flings open the microwave door and starts dousing the flames like she’s had experience doing it before. I actually think she was in the bent knee position I learned in basketball. After spraying the flames smoke was everywhere, and a layer of yellow dust covered everything. Then – lucky me – the fire alarm decides it is going to join in on the fun, along with the magnetic fire doors that have all decided to automatically close.

How could this experience get even worse? Thank God the sprinklers didn’t go off. I think if that had happened Lisa would have had no doubt in using it as grounds to give me the axe.

We locked up the office and made a mad dash down the stairs to the sidewalk. Note: we work in the MIDDLE of downtown Portland. How mortified was I? Very. It was my first week of work and I could only imagine how dumb these people thought I was. WOW, what an idiot! Metal in the microwave, really?

In the end nobody was hurt, nobody besides the LAD team evacuated the building (good thing for them it was only a microwave fire), no fire truck came oddly enough and nothing was damaged except the microwave and my self-esteem. A lesson was learned that day – DO NOT put metal travel mugs in the microwave. I have now made it a ritual to ask every time I put something into the microwave if it’s microwave safe and I have been branded with the name “flambé”.

I wonder if Lisa still would have hired me if she had known about my previous “blender accident”? hmmmmmm…