A Geek on Her Birthday

My friends at work made me a birthday card. They followed the tradition I started a few months back of making the birthday card. The first few cards were born out of necessity when we had forgotten two birthdays, but then it became a thing: what crappy card coloured with highlighters would Andrea give you this time? And now I have received my very first crappy work card. It brings a tear to my eye. It was devoid of highlighters but that's okay because it was a Doctor Who picture on the front. You NEVER ruin a Doctor Who picture with highlighters!

As we settled down to start our workday, Lester* came over to my cubicle.

"We found another picture of that thing..."

"It's a Dalek."

"Right, whatever. Anyway, we found another picture and it said "you will be exterminated" and JBobby* was asking me what that meant and I was like "I don't know, do I look like I watch Doctor Who?"

"It's what they say. It's their threat. EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! And then a little blue laser beam comes out of that thing there and they kill you."

"Okay. So, we went with this picture instead and then we gave the card to Darth* to sign, and did you read what he wrote?"

"Hopefully you don't get exterminated."

"Right." She laughed.

I smiled.

"I went over to point it out to him," and it was at this point in her story that I started to laugh. Not because I found it funny for the same reasons she did, but because I found it hilarious that she didn't realise he was just writing what any Doctor Who fan would write on the inside of a Dalek card. It's like having a Friends card with Chandler on the front and writing 'Could I WISH you a happier birthday?'

"...he didn't find it that funny. I was trying to point out to him how funny it was that he wrote the same thing the other card had said but he wasn't really laughing about it. So I said to him 'I guess one things abundantly clear' and he replied 'that I'm a giant dork?'" More laughter from Lester.

I'm laughing at this point but still for a completely different reason than Lester.

"We are both giant dorks," I agree.

I turn to my card with a smile still on my face as Lester heads back to her cubicle. She pauses at JBobby's desk before sitting down.

"Yeah, she didn't find it that funny either."

My non-funny Doctor Who birthday card

(made with love and work supplies)

*Names, as always, have been changed to protect the guilty innocent.