On not making an impression

When I was in college the first time, I had a habit of wearing a rather unique piece of headgear. During my final year, a guy stopped me one day, and said we'd had a class together when we were freshmen, a huge chemistry lecture. I was abashed and shocked to be remembered, but he said he recognized my hat. I don't wear that hat anymore (maybe I should!!), but... I'm not the most memorable person you'll ever see, should you have the (mis?)fortune to see me. But I've been told that I have a sort of style these days, even if it's not exactly a stylish style. And yet...

I'm part of a big campus committee thing, which has subcommittees to do lots of the business. Mostly the subcommittees do their business and then bring things before the whole to make the final decision. Last week, one of my subcommittees had a typical meeting, during which an administrator came to present something we needed to act on. It took a while, but people asked good questions, and I think by the end we understood the issues and were comfortable with the decision to bring it before the whole.

This week, we had the big meeting. About half way through the big meeting, X, one of the people also on the other committee came in late, and sat down in a spare chair next to me.

My subcommittee's report came up, our chair presented the committee findings and decision, which everyone had also received in written form a couple days ahead of time, and the administrator gave a short, succinct explanation. One or two questions followed, and then we were ready for a vote.

After the vote, X turned to me with a tinge of disgust in her voice and said, "Last week, the sub-committee spent an hour on that!"

I was laughing inside, because, no, we hadn't spent an hour on it, and X had been late anyways. And, believe it or not, X had sat next to me at that committee meeting when she came in late. But all I could say was, "I was there."

I guess I've made just a splendid impression on X, eh?

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Things have been chaotically busy here. This weekend, one issue comes to a peak, I hope, which should help.