Fun With Purchase Requests

This was too good not to share...

I was out of the office all day yesterday in meetings.  Schmoozing State Reps and Senators in the morning, discussing and displaying various examples of aggressive versus passive "marketing" strategies with various Timmies through online meetings in the afternoon.

I get back to the office this morning and my secretary brings me all my mail and begins to fill me in on all I missed out on yesterday.  I check my voicemails and emails and begin to sift through the mountain of papers my secretary dumped on my desk.  Sitting there on top was a fax from our girls' campus.  I trash the cover page and discover a purchase request underneath.  Typical.  They are always wanting to spend money.  So I glance at the description line as I am picking up the phone to call over there and dive into a discussion about "needs versus wants" for the girls' campus.  But as I read the description of the "Item or Service To Be Purchased", I literally dropped the handset of my phone. 

Instead of taking the time to try to scan it in and then upload it to photobucket, etc., I'll just relay the important parts of the purchase request:

Reimbursement or Request for Check: Reimbursement

Cost of Item: $125

Code[for bookkeeping]: 1100(this is the code for advertising/marketing)

Description of Item: Full length arm tattoo of NPFC logo with text "Donations Gladly Accepted"

Are you kidding me!?!?!?!?!?

This came from one of our supervisors over there.  A fairly straight-laced lady that rarely says more than 2 words to me when I am at the girls' campus (I have been told by other staff that I intimidate her).  So I pick the phone back up off the floor and call the girls' campus.  This lady answers the phone and I immediately start to question her about getting a tattoo and what we are trying to teach these kids and how I appreciate her desire to help with fundraising but this is not the way to do it.  She proceeds to tell me about seeing boxers on TV with ads tattooed on their backs, etc. and how she just got it last weekend and has already had several people ask her  about it and that someone even wrote a check out for $100 and gave it to her for us. 

I just sat there on the phone in dead silence for a good 30 seconds.  I wasn't sure what else to say.  Then I hear something over the phone.  I'm on speakerphone and someone else is in the room with her.  I ask her who else was in there and she informs me it is the Campus Manager for the girls' campus.  I ask her if she knew about this tattoo and this lady just absolutely busts out laughing.  She couldn't hold it in any more.  They eventually explain it all to me.  One of the best practical jokes of all time.

It is good to laugh every once in a while, especially in this line of work.  Now, on to plotting my revenge...