My little place to hide from the world

Multiple men in other departments have asked if I'm a new bartender or HR hire. Followed by them looking incredibly embarrassed when I say I'm in IT.

Multiple women in other departments treat me like I'm the single coolest person on the planet simply for existing . Several already request me specifically for help despite not even being here for a month yet. I'm a hit with the ladies.

Had a very anxious caller say "Thanks, bro. Ma'am. I MEAN THANK YOU MA'AM" as we ended our convo.

Older employees especially love me. Even if they're usually "difficult" with my (very sweet) coworkers.

Maintenance guy was about to make a poop joke to one of my coworkers and stopped himself. "I can't say that nasty shit, dude...there's a lady in here"!

Boss was discussing setting up a very heavy (100-ish lbs) piece of equipment with me. My lead interrupted him to point out that I can't physically lift that. Boss was visibly confused for a solid 10 seconds before going "...Oh!" (All of my male colleagues, including him, are built like brick shithouses)

We fist bump around here. Was helped to my feet after servicing a machine with a facilities worker. And then he proceeded to give me the gentlest butterfly-kiss of a fist bump I've ever received in my life.

Colleauge meanwhile gave me such a mighty fist bump it physically pushed me back in my chair and then looked like he was going to die of shame immediately after (didnt even hurt lol)

In general, the blue collar workers treat me like a princess made of glass. This includes the single butch lesbian on premises that is even shorter and smaller built than I am.

I started using heart emojis in our teams chat and now all of the IT guys are doing it too.

Security guard clocked me as a lesbian based on my corporate goth vibe alone.

A separate maintenance worker has decided to hang around me like a standoffish cat. Sings Mr.Brightside while fixing a cable in our server room. Tonight I found out he has BIG opinions on false nails and what the ideal styles are. I let him pick out my next set and a set for my spouse (he has great taste)

19 year old server told a guest "shes SO cool" as I was fixing a register (wah)

Bartender (also 19-21 ish) twirled her hair and said "is she here to check our systems" when i was doing a department run (HELLO?)

Was helping a woman in another department and she commented that there's not a ton of girls in IT (true) then read me for filth by following it up with "but you all look like that"

Set up a printer for HR and you'd think I'm literally Jesus with how they lauded me

Have come to the conclusion that printers are like temperamental wild horses. They spook easily and wrangling them is a pain in the ass.

An elderly coworker insists on holding the server room door for me when I need to make audio adjustments for the music and TV that is pumped to the public-facing areas of our workplace. It’s now a little routine where I change the volume and he pokes his head out to see if it needs further adjustments. He always gives me a huge thumbs up.

I am a baseball fan but we primarily stream football. Only workplace discrimination I’ve experienced thus far.

Lead and I are gaining a kind of bratty sibling dynamic . We were struggling to get a football game started and as we were both blaming the other one for logging into the accounts wrong our manager just quietly said “I got it. I did it when you two were bickering.”

Two other IT guys also have an arts background and got (shyly) excited when I wanted to talk to them about it. Trying to convince one of them to draw D&D stuff with me. Both have very cool styles.

Everyone in this department but me is an anime nerd. BUT we’re also all TTRPG and gaming nerds, too.

Standoffish-Cat maintenance guy has become my buddy. Since I’m goth he sings Blink-182 songs at me whenever he sees me. I corrected him that I’m more of a Linkin Park girlie so it’s since changed to him singing “Crawling” instead.

Same guy was working on running cables for us and said “IT really doesn’t have any dikes (pliers) in here??!” I said “Only me” and the look on his face was literally this gif

BUT THEN when it gets too hot it starts being the coolant! and suddenly there are so many ways it can get out! you have so many sweat glands and so much skin and they all need to be cooled down before you DIE.

but then. you realize the least obvious one. it's the transmission fluid. it's the fucking transmission fluid. you can't transmit SHIT without your fliud. which is still fucking water somehow.

so now you're LEAKING your transmission fluid out of every goddamn pore and your kidneys are like hey. gimme that cleaning fluid cmon dude. while your pores are like ITS COOLANT. NEED COOLANT. FOR THE FIRE. NEED MORE COOLANT. SO MUCH FIRE. KILL IT. KILL IT MORE. MORE COOLANT. and then. the rest of you. that uses all that fluid to transmit things. it's like hey. hey. hey what the fuck.. i need that. hello? can anyone hear me? hello? it's so dark in here..

- his family has been in the film business literally since it was invented (his great grandmother was a silent film actress and married a producer. His grandfather, George Axelrod, was a well known screenwriter and director.)

- he got to train dolphins when he was 7 for a movie he was in.

- he was a child actor until he was 13 and had a role in an episode of Bay Watch that was so ridiculous, he said ‘this is bullshit’ and quit.

- he was once locked in a coffin while LARPing as a vampire.

- he came out as bisexual on a talk show about comics.

- he officiated Matt and Marisha’s wedding.

- he worked at RenFaire for years and is some kind of celebrity in that scene. People at RenFaire will call him Lord Taliesin and come up to make out with him and/or buy him drinks.

- he was an anime fan when that wasnt really a thing, going to conventions where the anime section had couple dosen quests, eventually being in a japanese gameshow bit about american anime fans with all other 15 cosplayers in the US

- He has been directing anime dubs since about 19, looking like this

- percy was originally a character from a script about ‘’the poor bastard that introduced firearms to the world’’

- during his child acting days he played a lot of abused kids because he was just really cute and innocent looking

- he played a strawberry in a Kellogs cereal comertial

Taliesin is the son of Nina axelrod, daughter of George axelrod yes, fun facts about Tal and his grandpa I can think of off the top of my head:

- George would critique baby Tals school essays and other writings, often with other big hollywood writers that happened to be visiting, absolutely tearing into this childs writing skills

- Taliesin got George to come down and do voiceover for an anime fandub Tal was doing before his voicover directing career took off

- During said voicover session George had a heart attack and almost had the best last words for an LA producer ‘’DONT LET ME DIE IN THE VALLEY!’’

One of my cats was pawing at the door and meowing loudly, an indication she REALLY needs to use the litter box.  I let her out and decide, hey, I’m hungry, and decide to the kitchen.  I forgot to shut the bedroom door. 

Next thing I hear is the group going completely silent.  My husband very calmly asks me to come over and help him gather our two cats up.  I go over to where the group is and my black cat, Cacoa, is rubbing up against the guy’s leg, purring, and doing her “let me on your lap” meow.  The other cat, Jasper, is sitting at the window, chilling out.  I go over and pick up Cacoa and tell the big dude she’s harmless, loves laps, and would be thrilled if he pet her.  Very slowly he touches my cat’s face, and she leans right into his hand.  He then pets her back and sighs because she’s really soft and purring like mad.  After a few minutes he asks how to pick her up and if it’s okay if she sits on his lap.