Ugly Shirt Day

Why is it that we feel the need to compete on everything, yes literally everything, here at EA? It's pretty amusing the lengths to which we will go to compete. And you know what, I think it's entirely healthy. Rather than compete professionally, we compete personally. We get out our aggression and the obsessive Type A need to be "on top" through means other than those that are so frequently a source of frustration amongst my friends in other (professionally) competitive work environments.

The latest competition occurred last Friday with a return of the Ugly Shirt Day contest. Yes, this was a day where we were all supposed to wear the ugliest shirt we owned. To work. It could not have been purchased after the announcement of the contest, and it had to be "work appropriate." And it had to be our own, not our roommates or borrowed from a friend.

And this wasn't just a "show up and we all sit around and laugh" kind of thing. Oh no. We had a full out runway competition, complete with personalized songs chosen by each contestant to walk down said runway, and two judges, appropriately playing Good cop/Bad cop roles.

The one problem was that no one in the office had a camera. Which is kind of sad because taking a picture of all of us together would have been priceless. After the initial "walk" down the runway, complete with every imaginable gyration, flirtation, and extra "edge" to get ahead (yes, while the entire company was watching), it was narrowed down to two contestants... Dr. Dave and Andrew. They were asked to do a final walk down the runway, and the decision was made. They have both worn their shirts at other locales, so I now have pictures of them I can share: First is Dr. Dave and then Andrew
Let's just talk about the fact that Dr. Dave wore that shirt to his 30th birthday party. Dr. Dave is notorious for proudly wearing his loud shirts around the office, like, every day. He's a character, and we love him for it.
Or how about the brown polyster goodness of Andrew's shirt?? Plus the hairy chest. Mmmmm, that just screams sexy.

So, who won you may ask? Dr. Dave. Without question. I mean, seriously, no one stood a chance. At all. I think Charles (one of the judges) said it best when he said (and I quote), "I assume there is a mirror somewhere in your house. I want to know where you got that mirror so that I too can wake up in the morning wearing something like that and say 'Damn I look good in this.'"

Just another day at EA.