(Trying out a shorter and more casual post style, so let me know if you like it!)

The other day I went into our office building’s bathroom down the hall. When I went to wash my hands, I noticed a white box sitting on the counter by the sink and saw that it contained a tiara, of all improbable things.

Since it was getting to be the end of the workday on a Friday, I thought someone surely would need this for some social event over the weekend. Having only one female coworker – and she’s not a pageant contestant – I hoped it would be a lady in one of the neighboring offices and went knocking on doors. Unfortunately, the two people who answered were males who looked at me strangely.

Fortunately, one of them, a man whose first language was likely Russian, allowed for the possibility that something might just be lost in translation and took me to his HR colleague. When I explained the same thing to her, she asked the other woman in their break room about it and then followed me back down the hall to see for herself. I appreciated that she allowed for the possibility that I might be reporting something factual.

Having reported the strange observation, I left the situation in her capable hands and hoped that she found a resolution since the tiara was not still on the counter when I returned on Monday morning.

While I would like to say that I didn’t recognize the you-so-crazy looks these level-headed people were giving me, I have had enough odd bug reports to discuss with developers that I know well the look that developers favor when I approach them with a bug report: I clearly had sprouted two more heads. That had to explain the strange things I was spouting. And I certainly do appreciate the ones who willingly suspend their disbelief – or indulge their curiosity – long enough to investigate my strange claims.

Of all the people who could have found the tiara and reported its presence for claiming, at least I knew from day-to-day work experience what it was like to have three heads.

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