Potted Plant Distribution by Burn Unit
January 2nd, 2009 2:25 PMIn the spirit of the task, I thought it would be better to make this donation without really telling anyone first.
Oh, and in the name of SFZero, not in my name.
With the 761 Oak Street address on the delivery invoice.
So I dressed up in my best "courier delivery guy" outfit1 and drove a white van over to the back door by the Ailene Cole Green Room and carted in sixteen plants of various sizes (teensy to bulky) and laid them outside the door (which was unfortunately locked). I called JJason to ask if he could help smooth over my cover story in case someone asked me what hte hell I thought I was doing. I didn't give JJason any details, just asked him to answer his phone "Stark Couriers" if I should call in the next 20 minutes and to play along. He was game, of course. I had a good scenario worked out where I'd treat him as my supervisor and how "not givin' me crap about this delivery do you wanna tell my supervisor to tell the client to take back all the plants? the day before new year's eve? are you sure about that?"
It was not all that necessary as only one person took note of me, a guy I ignored by punching some things into the iPhone after setting down a couple of the pots.
I must have been winded or groaned (my back's been bothering me) because he asked, "Are you all right?"
"Yah yah," I growled, continuing to ignore him. I was a little worried. My peripheral vision isn't superior, but I think it was someone I knew from back in the day, and I didn't want him to take note of my face so I figured I'd give him a reason to hustle out: a gruff delivery guy being rude. It worked as he hit the door.
I got all the plants dropped off and my invoice taped to one of the large pots. Enjoy the pictures!
1 this supposed "courier delivery guy outfit" is actually my usual winter coat and black knit hat
some of the plants
An empty office...
(except for the plants) (those big ones were out in the more public parts of the office)
more plants
(not so empty is it?)
you remember all the spiders, don't you?
spathiphyllium
this was out in a main kind of lobby area that we called "The Park" which was a round room with seating areas that we used for meetings and for the wow factor when bringing in clients and others. The plants were actually rented and when we were bought out, the new parent company cancelled the unnecessary expense of rented plants. We employees pooled our money together and bought several big ones like this spath here.
The Park
This is an old promo pic, just to give a sense what the Park looked like.
there were sixteen plants in all
Stark Couriers delivery van
Loaded up
Roger Workman (bringing the jungle to you)
Delivery man garb: I actually took this picture the next day, because I'd forgot to document it. But this is how I was dressed. The dark brown canvas duck coat and black wool cap are pretty much the perfect image of "working guy" and therefore helped make me look more like I was supposed to be doing this. More..."ignorable."
Can't call it a green room without some greenery!
(I know that's not why it's called a green room)
sixteen plants donated!
Invoices make it official
That's an INVOICE hanging off the corn plant or palm or whatever that is. It reads, among other things, "SSI - SFZero International 761 Oak Street, San Francisco CA" and the address of the college, along with the note "Packing List Only - Not A Bill - Do Not Pay" and "delivery charge: waived" as well as "Grn Rm : "Michael" The way I see it, nothing lends legitimacy to a delivery like a Microsoft Excel invoice template. Nothing is more blandly authoritative that "These belong here."
19 vote(s)
Jellybean of Thark
5
JJason Recognition
4
Sean Mahan
3
susy derkins
4
Lincøln
5
saille is planting praxis
5
teucer
3
anna one
3
Cookie
3
Darkaardvark
4
Fiona
4
Sombrero Guy
5
Secret Agent
5
zer0gee
1
Myrna Minx
5
rongo rongo
3
Loki
5
Eidhnean entwines
3
lark
Terms
votelater, uniform, oldschool6 comment(s)
That's true about the invoice.
One of my favorite things about SF0 is the weirdness that you do not create yourself, merely get drawn into.
I really wish I could have used you. It probably would have been hilarious. But it might not have been. I really didn't know what to expect or what I was going to do exactly.
You know how it goes, you get that "task tingle" or shortness of breath or whatever, knowing you've fully committed to the action (like once I'd set down about seven of those pots there was no going back). At that point you might be...you just don't feel tethered to a "plan" in any conventional sense. It's just the doing.
Beautiful tribute to the Green Room, and good job acting ignorable. And yeah, an invoice makes it official. I'll have to remember that, just in case.
761 Oak St is honored!