http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhYFh4k5wWk

Did you watch the above clip? Amazing finish for the George Mason Patriots, no? Until the last minute or so they never had a lead. Do you know why? I’ll give you a hint:

[15:37] Jen: UNBELIEVABLE
[15:38] Me: I WOULDN’T KNOW
[15:38] Me: [My Boss] PRESSED THE BOSS BUTTON WITH 30 SECONDS LEFT
[15:39] Me: AND DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO GET IT BACK
[15:39] Me: >.<

I’ll be the first to admit that my loyalties are not that tight with George Mason, even though that’s where I work. But we’re talking about March Madness here! I had the game streaming behind me on my Mac so that people walking by and my team could watch at their leisure. It was a nice way to pass a Friday afternoon – Work with my back to the Mac and a nail biter of a basketball game in the background. As Mason clawed it’s way back to striking distance everyone’s attention on campus was glued to either a tv set or a computer, watching the drama unfurl. Whether you are a die hard fan of Mason or not, it was some riveting basketball: an 8 seed fighting off a 9 seed that beat them in a regular season tournament a year ago.

Online, people that I work with were going insane with anticipation. You could hear people in the hallways cheering and screaming with each passing second.

In my office space it was a little different. My team had decided to take a seat and watch the intense final moments, nervously waiting to see if Mason would hold onto their lead or come home early.

Now, it’s at this point that you would think we’d have some sort of closure. 30 seconds left and what do us tech weenies do? We started to discuss the ‘Boss Button’. The Boss Button is there so that if you’re watching the game and your boss comes by you just click it and something that doesn’t look like a college basketball game pops up until your boss leaves.

You can see where this is going, right? Our new boss decides to demonstrate how the Boss Button works so he stood up from his chair, walked over to my Mac and demonstrated it. While the game was on. While there were only 30 seconds left and no time outs. While the future of our University’s NCAA Tournament journey hung in the balance. And then…and then…

…he didn’t know how to get it back.

We could hear the game in the background and people in the building screaming. We, however, were like Casey at the Bat. There was no joy in Mudville because we struck out. By the time he figured out how to return to the game all we saw were players walking around the court, hugging and screaming in joy. We saw the score. We knew the outcome. We missed the most thrilling part of the game.

And that, my friends, is why I will now carry my balpeen hammer to work. You know, just in case anyone wants to mess with my computer while we’re watching the games I’ll be able to take ‘corrective action’.