Installation Underwear

In December of 2012, Keegan and I were in Las Vegas for an exhibit installation at the Discovery Children's Museum. We were wrapping up the installation, but had to extend our stay due to some delays and city inspections that, oddly enough, took place over the weekend.

Saturday night after a successful inspection.

On that Sunday, we decided to go to see Hoover Dam after we did some laundry. Keegan said to me, “You must be out of clean underwear by now,” and I replied, “Duh, of course,” secretly smirking because I know the secret of wearing the same pair of underwear four times. The hotel didn’t do laundry over the weekend, so we went in search of a laundry mat. Las Vegas must have some larger aversion of Sunday laundry because we went to three different laundry mats and they were all closed. The third location we tried was next to a Target, so Keegan said that we could just buy underwear, so we did. I wish I had photos of Keegan and I going through the underwear rack and gleefully comparing the different brands, sizes, and colors. More than likely, Target probably has security footage of it that they watch when in need of entertainment.

Underwear purchased, we headed to Hoover Dam for a day of tourist fun and then traveled home a few days later.

Keegan on the bypass bridge overlooking Hoover Dam

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

After returning to work for a week, Keegan and I were summoned to the front desk. We had turned in our trip expenses and the Finance Woman in charge of going through the receipts had some questions for us. She had clearly been interrogating Keegan already, because he looked physically and mentally spent.

Keegan had tried to explain to Finance Woman that it was not his fault that the trip was extended, and we didn’t have any other alternatives. She said that she didn’t care what the circumstances were, but he couldn’t expense underwear. I quickly understood that Keegan had put his underwear on his expenses for reimbursement. I had not. I believe Keegan had purchased a few other things at Target that were normal expense items and, shit, why not get the underwear paid for as well. Our company would normally pay for clothes washing services, but it seems they had a real problem with paying $9.99 for three pairs of underwear.

Keegan tried to argue that, if he had used the hotel washing services, it would have cost $30 and he was actually saving the company money. She didn’t buy that. She said the company would not pay for clothes the employees kept. That’s when Keegan came up with a brilliant idea: he would give the underwear back to the company. They would become Installation Underwear. We would keep them in the job box, and if an employee out on an installation ever needed a pair, due to an extended install or pants soiling event, they could use a loaner pair of Installation Underwear.

It was a game changing innovation.

She said no.

Keegan was not reimbursed for his underwear, but I think him paying $9.99 for story that will last a lifetime is completely worth it.