Curiouser and Curiouser

The other day we were busily working away in the newsroom, when a woman wandered in and stood in the middle of the room. My boss noticed her and asked if we could help her. She announced, matter of factly, "I'm here with __ (musical group) and I see that they are set up in the performance studio."

Oh ok, he replied, thinking perhaps she was just peeking in to see a working newsroom. We all went back to our work, buried in the rush of being on deadline.

And the woman continued to just stand there. And stand there. And stand there. It was beyond awkward. But everyone tried to be polite and pretend that it was completely normal for a total stranger to silently hover in the middle of our office.

Finally after several minutes, the woman loudly said "ARE you going to help me??"

"Excuse me?" my boss asked, startled.

"I've been standing here all this time and no one is helping me!" the woman responded.

My boss apologized and said he didn't realize that she needed help since he had already offered to help her earlier. She proceeded to complain and berate him for not taking her to the proper office or showing her where her group was performing (even though she had already informed us that she saw her group setting up in the studio).

She complained the whole way down the hall as he escorted her back to the area she had wandered away from.

Bizarre.