Garlic and Propane

It was an interesting day at work yesterday. By interesting, I mean smelly. And by smelly, I mean disgusting. Let me explain.

It's about 4:00 in the afternoon and we're all sitting at our desks working away when this odd smell starts creeping into our work space. At first I didn't think much about it. I just thought it was something in passing that would be gone as quickly as it came. WRONG.

As I sat there, the smell started getting worse. But the stronger it became, the more identifiable it was and soon I was thinking to myself "that smells like natural gas". Not something you want to smell inside a building. So I look around to see if anyone else seemed to notice the stench. But everyone was working away. This led me to believe that either 1- Nobody wants to say anything or 2- I'm crazy, my nose is broken, and I'm the only one smelling this awful smell.

Pretty soon Kevin comes around the corner and expressed that he smelled natural gas and thought it best that we go outside. So we all grab our coats/bags and head out. Some guy even passed out cookies while we were standing in the 80 MPH wind waiting for an invitation to go back inside. I noticed that nobody else was coming outside except for the people sitting in our department. Pretty soon, someone came out and told us it was okay to go back in.

Once back in my seat, an announcement came over the PA system "All employees, please evacuate the building now..." UH, okay. We just did that but whatever, I guess we'll do it again. But just as we were getting up to go out a second time, someone called false alarm.

I guess the lab was cooking odorless garlic (odorless my foot). Apparently when you cook odorless garlic, it gives off a smell similar to that of propane. Let me just tell you, it was bad. REALLY BAD. As in, I could barf it stinks so bad.

On my way home I was sitting in my car thinking "What stinks in here?" And then I realized, it was me. Yes, I had to go home and shower because I wreaked of natural gas/garlic. Needless to say, I pulled into the garage, opened my sunroof to let the car air out, and went upstairs to take a shower.

Who knew that cooking garlic could be so fun?!