So this one time...at Quiznos...

I made a complete fool of myself in front of Steeler's offensive guard, Alan Faneca.

First a little back round info eh?

While interning last fall at KDKA-TV, it was my job, every Tuesday to walk down to the parking garage and let Mr. Faneca in. He stopped by once a week for some Steeler wrap-up segment on the evening news. After 15 straight weeks of doing this, it had become pretty routine. Each week, I would answer the phone around 5:15 p.m. with my tagline, "KDKA, this is Caitlin," to which I received word that he had pulled in and was downstairs waiting. I would then leave my spot at the assignment desk to walk down the two flights of stairs to the basement. Once there, I would open the door to the garage and patiently wait for Mr. Faneca. Then, together, we would walk up the two flights of stairs, small talking about the cold weather, the warm weather, the fall weather and pretty much anything else weather-related. Yes, I know this does not make us friends, or even acquaintances. However, as I said, this little interaction went on for 15 weeks, so perhaps you can understand why I thought, just maybe, he would remember me when he walked into Quiznos that fateful Sunday back in May.

I had been working very part-time at the Quiznos in Wexford. I recall feeling slightly "out of it" that day; however, like the good worker bee I am, I stuck it out and made the people their sandwiches throughout my 5 hour shift that Sunday. It was nearing the end of my shift, when I, without looking up, rattled off my Quiznos tagline, "Welcome to Quiznos, is this for here or to go?" The response was deep and monotone - exactly what one would expect from a 6 foot 5 man weighing 307 pounds (I looked that up. I am not a stalker.) When I eventually did look up, the memories of walking up those 2 flights of stairs for 15 weeks straight flooded my brain. I played it cool as I prepared Mr. Faneca’s 4 toasty subs. My mind was racing with ways of casually bringing up our “past” together. I didn’t want it to come off as I was crazy-obsessed, but at the same time I saw no harm in nonchalantly mentioning how I was the girl who was in charge of letting him into the building at KDKA.

I had just about gotten the verbiage straight in my head, when, suddenly…completely out of the blue…without any warning whatsoever…I side-stepped onto a tomato, and as if I were a stunt double in an action flick was launched into the air, feet completely out from under me and came crashing down on my back in the middle of the messy prep aisle floor.

I can still recall, like it was yesterday, the look on Mr. Faneca’s face as he so effortlessly leaned over the display case and asked, “Umm…are you O.K.?” Like it was nothing, I hoped up, replied, “Oh yea, I’m just fine” and as if nothing ever happened went back to making his sub (chicken carbonara if I recall correctly.) It took only about a minute for both of us to realize that I was making his sandwich with the same latex gloves I had on when I wiped out. In the process of standing up they must have gotten some of the scraps of food from the floor on them, and now like a good worker bee I was using these contaminated gloves to prepare Mr. Faneca’s food. It was as if he knew what was happening, but didn’t want to say anything and risk traumatizing me anymore. Once aware of my food-prep faux pas, I quickly pulled the gloves off and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, let me start over.” He half-smiled and then must have decided it would be best for him to walk away, down to the other end of the counter to wait for his food – far, far from the crazy Quiznos girl with the scraps of food all over her back.

Once his food was done, he was outta there faster than I could begin re-contemplating how to bring up our KDKA days.

The worst part of it all was I am certain that he thought that I was just some crazy-obsessed Steeler fan who was star-struck and couldn’t hold my composure; when in reality, I just wanted to reminisce a bit about our days in the stairwell.