Vote for Jeef

I found this highly amusing story at You Can’t Get Arrested For Being Awesome, and thought I’d share it. Somehow, I could see it happening… you know, to me.

We just had the elections for the editorial board of the Law Review, and let’s just say that there’s a pretty good reason I was not elected Editor-in-Chief. Yeah, I threw my hat in the proverbial ring, wrote my statement of interest, kissed buttons and handed out babies. And with only a few hours until the election I still had almost eleven dollars in the Nye for Editor fund. No sense letting that go to waste.

I swung by Wal-Mart and picked up a “Vote for Pedro” t-shirt (cost, $10.64; funds remaining, $0.17) and grabbed a red Sharpie off my desk. I crossed out Pedro and proceeded to write my name below it. Then I put it on, and threw my dress shirt and coat and tie over top (I was coming from an interview) and headed back to the law school. Once the election meeting started I very casually took off my jacket and loosened my tie (“boy, it’s hot in here, isn’t it?”), unbuttoned the sleeves and pulled off my shirt, very casually, and just sit back and waited to see who would notice.

A few people noticed, and laughed, and eventually it spread around the room. Everyone was pointing and laughing and having a good time. But there was a problem. See, my name is Jeff. But in my effort to get the name centered on the shirt, I first drew a big blocky E between the second and third letters in Pedro, and then said to myself, “OK, just do the same thing on the other side.” And so I drew another E.

Let me say that again. My name is Jeff. J-E-F-F. I made one E, and then I made another. Well, what could I do at that point? So I just wrote on the J and the F and hoped no one would notice.

They noticed.

So there I am, with my own name misspelled on a shirt that I made. Took a great idea that might have garnered me at least a few sympathy votes and totally blew it. I’m sure I didn’t get a single one.

Maybe the worst part about it was that as I was standing there and everyone was laughing about it, someone handed me a bottle of white-out. That had not even occurred to me. I have a bottle sitting on my desk at home, right next to the red Sharpie. And still I came to the elections with a shirt that said “Vote for Jeef.” I’m an idiot.

(source: You Can’t Get Arrested for Being Awesome)

Labels: anecdotes and opinions, law school