Today, right before lunchtime one of the admins on my floor was trying to peek into the large conference room that I knew for a fact to be empty. She had a meeting in less than five minutes and needed to get in. I offered up my knowledge that it was indeed empty (despite her firm belief that someone was locked inside napping) and informed her who had the key to let her in.

She asked if I could keep an eye on her meetings materials, and left it on top of a wooden lock box that collects the floors confidential papers to be shredded. She asked with the firm statement of “Please do not let anyone dump my papers inside the shred box.”

I obliged.

Then I heard an unfamiliar voice come from near where the admin left all of her paperwork saying, “Oh, is all this paperwork to be shredded?”

My initial comment was going to be an “Absolutely not!” and as the “absolutely” was coming out of my mouth I saw that it was creepy Missouri girl asking in a joking manner, so I changed my “not” into a “go for it”, and then we had a short smile laugh.

It was the first time she ever spoke to me other than her quiet monotone “excuse me” she’d say if I was in her way by a set of cabinets, despite that we are cube neighbors – never once a hello.

I would never have been able to tell from her monotone voice that she had been joking, thankfully I saw that she had a big grin on her face, it was a laughing grin, so I knew that she had to be joking.

Needless to say, she broke out her Fire Marshall Bill face, since that’s exactly what and whom she looks like when laughing.

This marks the second time I’ve seen her make this face, and I think it’s just great.