Your Cows are Getting Out

As the dawn broke Thursday morning, the last thing I expected was that it would be one of the most embarrassing birthdays of my entire life…

I suspected something was up when a coworker called me while I was driving into work, making sure I was coming in that day. The only thing to cross my mind was, well maybe they put a balloon and candy bar in my cube or something. When I arrived at work, everything seemed normal — business as usual.

Then I heard two of my coworkers approaching, one with a paper crown in his hand. Then as I turned around I suddenly saw more and more heads popping up above my cubical wall. Oh great… here it goes.

Having been corornated with an American Idol branded paper crown, we walked over to the open area where all of my coworkers had assembled.

There was a cake sitting there with the inscription: “Happy Birthday, Simon Sam”

Apparently someone had read my blog about hating embarrassing birthday celebrations, and really wanted to give me a humdinger this year! So everyone was instructed to just stare at me for a minute or two. Thankfully, engineers aren’t so prone to burst into song, so there was NO Birthday Dirge! (Yipee!)

So as we enjoyed cake and my coworkers razzed me about feeling old when I was one of the youngest employees there, I sensed something still not quite right. Finally, one guy who came a little late to the celebration came over to wish me happy birthday and then noted, “uhh, and you might want to check your fly.”

And sure enough, the gate was half open.

I think I then went from lightly sunburned red to bell pepper red in a matter of seconds. All I could think to say was, “at least you know who your true friends are. they’ll always tell you when you have pie on your face.”

So thanks to my coworkers for one of the most memorable birthdays of my life!