Monday, May 5, 2008

Adult + Sticker = Lame

Tomorrow is election day in Indiana. For once, this is a really exciting time in the Hoosier State. I don't think that Indiana has ever mattered in national elections. We've never been a swing state and typically only get national candidates to stop over on their way to Illinois or Ohio. Our only real excitement on election day is finding out if we'll be the first state officially 'called' by Wolf Blitzer during the presidential race.

But tomorrow is different and voter turnout will be high. The one downside of having an exciting election day in Indiana is that we'll have more adults wearing stickers. If there's one thing that upsets me more than Ann Curry, it's adults wearing stickers. This usually only happens on election day (I Voted!) and when there's a blood drive at work (I Donated Blood!). It doesn't matter who the sticker-wearer is...if you're wearing a sticker, we'll probably be enemies for at least a day. Oh, and I know that voting and donating blood are good things and if you're a sticker wearer, then I'm sorry. Please don't take it personally. I would call it a pet peeve, but one of our loyal readers told me that I can't use that expression anymore.

Side note: My wife just told me that she wore a sticker on Friday. I guess it said "Casual for a Cause" and she donated a few dollars to wear jeans to work with the money going to some cause. My sticker on my wear jeans to work days would just say "No, I'm Just Lazy" or "Didn't get around to Laundry."

The one positive thing that comes from adult sticker wearing is that it provides another opportunity for office wagering. I enjoy taking on the role of office oddsmaker (or bookie), taking bets on everything from how many times some person say some buzzword during some meeting, to setting an over/under for the length of time that a new employee will last. No money really changes hands here, just something to do at work. With sticker wearing, you can just have your friends pick the coworker most likely to wear a sticker on election day or blood drive day. If there's a tie and multiple people choose a sticker-wearer, you can use number of bumper stickers on the employee's car as a tiebreaker.

I'm not sure why sticker wearing upsets me as much as it does. Most of the time when adults do things that only a child should do, I have the opposite reaction. I can't get mad at an adult wearing mittens or adults riding a tandem bicycle. I've tried. Can't do it. Doesn't matter who you are or what you did to me. I'm not sure what would happen if I saw an adult wearing both a sticker and mittens. I guess we'll have to wait until November to find out.

5 comments:

Amanda said...

Next time I see you, I hope that I have lots and lots of stickers. ;D

Nate said...

That's fine, as long as you're wearing mittens or riding a tandem. Or you could have an exotic animal wearing people clothes. That would probably cancel out the negative impact of the sticker(s).

Al Iverson said...

I recommend subversion of the sticker system. One year I made and wore a sticker that said "I farted." It was a close enough knock off of the real thing that not everybody who saw it noticed that it was different.

Or, if you want to share your appreciation for lunch, how about making a small red round sticker that says, "I eated!"

Nate said...

Al - I like it. I was going to go with "I Gave Blood" tomorrow, but I really like I Eated. Was also thinking of finding some old political buttons for dead politicians, but that took too much work, so I settled on the Michael Dukakis avatar.

Melissa said...

I'm covering your desk in stickers tomorrow. And thanks for giving me hell all day for wearing my sticker, btw.