Striking the Right Chord

We moved into a swanky new office building earlier this year. The building is going to be dedicated amidst much fanfare tomorrow. It's a nice building and all, but personally I don't care much for dedication ceremonies. You know how it is. So it was a bit awkward when I ran into one of the event's organizers in the hall.

"Are you going to be attending the dedication tomorrow?", he inquired matter-of-factly.
"Errr... I'm not quite sure...", I squirmed.
"The Commissioner's going to be there, speaking about the agency's vision for the future"
"Well, I'd love to, but I think I have some... umm... work to attend to..."
"It'll be a good opportunity to meet with people from other divisions"
"work... that'll require me to be in the lab all day"
"There'll be some very important people attending the ceremony"
"ummm... meetings... uh, teleconference...", I was cluthcing at straws here.
"And there'll be free food served after the function..."
"What time does it start, again?"

I guess what they say is true. You can take a man out of grad school, but you can never take grad school out of a man.