Sunday afternoons my project team meets to discuss whatever we've been working on for the past week and how much of it to report to the
boss. It's a particular hassle because the buses in this town don't run Sundays, and I live offcampus, so usually Sunday mornings I'm begging my
roommates for a lift. Luckily one of them had to run errands today, so I arrived at the library on time. It was empty, but campus is alwasy deserted Sundays because everyone's still
hung over from partying after yesterday's game.
I don't remember what
idiot decided we should meet on Sunday afternoons, but very likely it was the same who's currently in charge. He
leads by incompetence - inspiring so much
antipathy in the rest of us that it drowns out whatever other little gripes we have with each other. He's loud, pedantic, self-absorbed, and generally a stupid asshole who doesn't know he's being one.
The idiot leader and one other person were already there, going over a chart they'd drawn up on the
whiteboard for our next report. Jason came in last, about thirty minutes late, and told us he'd heen held up because there seemed to be some concert on the
quad - lots of people all headed in the exact opposite direction as he was driving. "There was this
fanatic, glazed look on their faces," he said, "like they would stop at nothing to get to the show. Though you'd think
rabid fans would make more noise."
There really wasn't much we had to turn in, just a few pages and the chart on the board. Ron and Jason had already started typing at the room's two computers when Idiot Leader turned to Lyn and me at the table and said, gesturing to the hallway, "You two, please feel free to move out there and write up this chart." Everyone protested at this, and it seemed to finally dawn on him that his request had been completely unnecessary. Then, inexplicably, he started packing up and said, "Well, it looks like we're done here, then. Have a good day, everyone." And he left.
I don't get it either.
As it turned out, we spent two more hours finishing up, and by then it was starting to get dark outside, so we all bummed rides home from Jason since everyone lived pretty close to each other anyway.
We hadn't gone more than 500 feet when we saw Idiot Leader walking ahead of us, swaying a bit like he was
drunk (not surprising, in this town). Lyn opened the window to yell at him, but before she got anything out he turned around and there was the strangest look on his face - it was all pale and blotchy and glaring, and he stopped and began staggering back towards us. Bizarre as all hell. Lyn freaked and rolled the window back up, and Idiot Leader changed course again, heading back toward the quad. Up ahead, past the turn out of campus, we could see another long line of slowly shuffling people just like Jason had described. Probably that's why he'd had to leave earlier, though it seems strange for fans to be streaming in two hours after the show starts.
In any case, we'll report this to the supervisor tomorrow.