The Guy You Love To Hate

When I first moved to Tulsa, I was still naive about finding an authentic church experience.  As I was getting to know people at work I inquired about what church they attended.  Rarely did I have a geniune invitation extended to me, but I was eager to find a church home at the time.

There was one particular Project Manager I obviously did not know much about, but I decided to visit his church one Sunday.  Prior to that Sunday I mentioned to him that I would be attending.  I was received with a fairly "less than excited" response and certainly no "oh great, we'll look for you and you can sit with us".

Anyway, I show up at the very conservative church ( yet they had that trendy "we're a contemporary church" attitude ) and I find myself the one who is seeking this guy out.  I find him and the guy barely acknowledges my presence and does not even introduce me to his wife and kids who are standing right behind him.  So, I'm like "uh, ok, well" and the guy does not even invite me to sit with him so I find a spot a couple rows back, sit by myself through the entire service and then linger for a few moments thinking I'll talk to a few people.  Uh, none.

So, how did I get on this topic?  We'll jump forward a few years.  I enter the conference room at work for a managers meeting and he is the only one there at the time so I do my normal thing and say "hey *****, what's up?".  The guy remains glued to his laptop and does not even look up to acknowledge me.  So, you say, maybe the guy is just anti-social and awkward.  Oh contrar! my friend.  The guy is quite the social butterfly ( or should I say ass-kisser ).

You see, here is the deal.  There are these creatures in the corporate world whose entire philosophy in life is "what can this other person do for me?".  If the answer is "nothing", then this type of person has no interest in you.  Just a couple days ago my boss was in town and this other guy decides to do a stop-and-chat with my boss.  Of course, he is Mr. Personality while the entire time he literally does not look at me once.

These are the type of people on the planet that make me laugh and provide me with more then enough reason to avoid the entire church social scene altogether.