Even by Mark standards, my screw up at work late Friday was a big one. Our department was changing floors, and I was moving into my new office. One of my coworkers dropped by and asked me how I liked it, to which I responded with a rambling diatribe on the excessively bright lighting.

“Well,” he asked,”why don’t you just unscrew some of the lights?”

They were new fixtures. “I’m not sure how to open those up.”

“I think you just pull on them and they pop open.”

“Huh.” I climbed on top of my desk and pulled on the cover. It popped off quite easily, and the room went from bright to blinding. The bulb assembly was fairly complex, though, and I wasn’t about to attempt unscrewing anything. “Okay, that needs to go back on.” I tried hooking the cover back on, but with no luck. “Maybe I just have to push on it and it will click in.” I pushed up, and then…

There were sparks everywhere.

Followed by the lights over 60+ cubes going black.

“Oh fuck.”

Followed by laughing from my coworker. “Oh my god, that’s so awesome.”

I was pretty upfront with my boss about what happened, and am not expecting much in the way of official repercussions, but I still expect to get a lot of crap about it tomorrow.  Stories like this one don’t disappear easily.

Here comes Monday.