Sure let's hear that story?
I forgot about getting back to this, my apology.
So…I’ve lived here several times over my lifetime. One of the times moving back to Boston I was about to look for work when a friend said, “We're looking for Police Officers at Such and such Hospital. (Massive place in Boston), you’d be perfect, come work with us.”
So I called and got an appointment with the Chief for an interview. Handed in my resume and sat outside in the waiting area. She had told me she’d be about twenty minutes.
She had me wait three and a half hours. Normally, I would have left, but my curiosity got the best of me.
I’m finally called into a meeting room adjacent to her office. She has an entire wall covered with framed certificates of courses she’s taken. Not degrees, just completed course certificates. And I’m thinking, "Uh oh, one of those people.”
There’s her and I, my buddy who had me apply, and two of her assistants.
She looks at me and asks, “So, Mister Buka, what do you want to be when you grow up?” (I’m in my forties at the time)
I see my friend wince, and her two assistants stifle laughs. I politely say, “Sorry I wasted your time. Have a nice day.” And politely left.
As I get to my car I take a deep breath and exhale. I can’t remember feeling so low. And there’s a ticket on my windshield, from her department…..because I was kept waiting for three and a half hours. Oh, woe is me.
Flash forward seven or eight years. I’m back in Federal Law Enforcement again. Our building does a lot of conferences and classes for a lot of people. Guess who comes waltzing in to take a course? Good old Chief "What do you want to be when you Grow Up.” And she needs to sign in with me.
She doesn’t remember me, but I sure as hell remember her. I had seen her name on the visitors log of the day. So I had been waiting with a song in my heart. I deny her access because I can. She demanded to see my boss….who I had told all about this. When I told him, he laughed and said, "Did she really say that?" I said, "Yup."
So anyway....he comes down and speaks to her. He points to me and says, “Oh, Buka’s in charge today, it’s his turn. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, ma'am.”
She was embarrassed and red faced. And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it because my department answered to nobody. Especially not to a hospital cop, not even a chief.
The next day my boss comes up to me and says, "We were off our game yesterday. Know what we should have done?" I say, "What, no?"
He said "We should have had a framed certificate to hand her that said, "I was thrown out of such and such."
Damn, I wish we had thought of that. That would have been really funny.
It was one of the most fun things I can remember in my career.