After having just moved to California, I had started my new job on Monday, and on Friday, my boss hosted an open house/Christmas party at his home. Since I was the new guy there and didn't know a lot of people yet, I was looking forward to going, if for nothing else, to do some networking with new people from the office.
So, with the directions in my car, I drove to the house. I saw dozens of cars parked out front. I parked not too far away from the house and walked up to the door. I saw through the window that the front room is full of people, so I just opened the door and walked on inside. I asked the first guy by the front door, "Is this Bill's house?" He smiled and said, "Sure is, come on in. Food is here, and drinks are around the corner," pointing to the dining room.
So, I make my way inside, looking around for people that I recgonize. Obviously, since I'm the new guy, I didn't expect to see too many people that I'd already met. I started milling around, and I didn't see anyone that I've met yet, so I started talking to a guy about my age in the living room. I introduced myself, and we start talking. After a couple of minutes, He said, "I don't remember seeing you at the office." I responded, "Oh, that's because I'm new. I just started this week." "Oh yea? What department do you work in?" I said, "I'm the Web Manager." He got this dumb look on his face, and said "Web what?" This didn't strike me as odd because out of the 600 people in the office, I knew that not everyone knew about our web sites yet.
So, I said, "You know, for the Healthy Families program... and I manage the web sites and the Technical Support Help Desk for that..." He gave me a quizzical look and said, "Buddy, what office do you work in?"
Glancing around the room again, I still don't see a single person that I've ever seen in the office. I looked at this guy. I looked around the room again. I grasped my drink tightly. I asked him, "Um... whose house am I in? This is Bill's house, right?" He said, "Dude, this is Don and Paula's house."
I looked at him. He looked at me. We looked at each other, both with a not entirely confident look on our faces. I paused and said, "So... this isn't Bill's house?"
"Nope."
"So... I just walked into the wrong house?"
"Apparently so. Sorry, dude."
Not able to contain myself, I just started laughing. He starts laughing. A couple of people next to us look over and wonder what we're laughing at. So, being a good sport, I begin to entertain the whole room with my story. Within a few seconds, I have the entire room laughing with me. I close by saying, "I just want everyone to know, that I just moved to California, and you guys are so nice here. I can just walk into a stranger's house, grab a Coke and some Lil Smokies, and I feel right at home!!!" The party was in an uproar as I confidently walked back out the front door and down the street to Bill's house.