Close Encounter of the Strange Kind

Honestly, I had a different topic all picked out for today's blog, but I couldn't just let this experience go from the person who just walked in.

A little background: our offices are quite quiet as we do most of our work on the web and work with most colleges via phone or email. This means very very few people come in to visit who do not have an appointment of some kind here (bringing us marketing materials, applying for a job, fixing something, etc.). My office is the closest to the door and due to our lack of visitors we do not have a "front desk" kind of setup so I typically see people who come in and try to direct them to the correct person/place.

Today a gentleman with a huge bushy heard (his most distinguishing feature) came in and stood at our front counter area, so I asked him if he was here to see someone. Rather than respond to my question he came into my office and asked what this place was, to which I explained that we are an Internet based marketing company for colleges.

"Market... what?" he asked. Realizing maybe I had used some industry lingo and that not everyone really realizes how colleges recruit I explained that we helped high school students find colleges that appeal to them, and help the colleges reach out to high school students who may not have known about them.

After a pause... he says "Oooh. You must have gone to MSUM then." (MSUM= Minnesota State University Moorhead.) "No, I didn't go there." I replied. "Concordia then?" (Again, not really sure why this is relevant... but I feel like I should be polite.) "Nope." again I responded. "You must not be from around here" he then deduced, to which I really puzzled him with my response. "No, I am, but I attended college in Texas for a bit and received my undergraduate degree in Minneapolis."

I'm not sure if this REALLY puzzled him because he thought about it for a moment, said he had been to Texas before, then asked if we had a business card and then told me to contact a school in California where he had lived once because they have a college in that town. Then without saying another word he left.

Quite frankly, I was left a little puzzled from the whole thing. I wasn't sure if he was looking to find out if we are hiring (He was dressed in a button down shirt and slacks) or was just in the building and decided to see what's on the 7th floor, or something else. I was quite confused, especially as he just out of the blue turned around and left without ever really telling me why he was here.

Occasionally someone from another floor sees our company name on the building directory and will come up and say "I'm Jane from the third floor and we were just wondering what you do up here!" but that's about as random a visitor as we ever get.

So today's odd visit required a blog. Anyone have any ideas as to what he may have been looking for or doing??? Oh Mondays...