Thursday, May 27, 2010

Duped

Jeff called me at work at 3:40 PM to ask if I would be at the office in the next few minutes.

"I have a meeting at 4:00," I replied.

"Okay, I'll hurry over there. I have something to give you."

"Oooh!" thought I. Earlier in the day Jeff and I had a virtual exchange about the possibility of ice cream which didn't pan out. But I knew HE had gone for a scoop or three with a friend and I immediately assumed he was bringing me an ice cream treat as solace for my inability to get out of the office to get my own.

4:00 rolls around and there is no Jeff, so I head into the conference room to run what I think is going to be a 30 minute meeting. All the while I'm day dreaming about the ice cream sundae Jeff is bringing to me. "Will he know to put it in the freezer if I'm not at my desk?" I continue, "Maybe someone will tell him to find me in the conference room and he'll hand deliver a banana split." Panicked for a moment I also thought, "Gosh! What if the place gets locked up and he can't get in? Will he eat MY ice cream? Will he wait in the parking lot with it?"

I look up at the clock and realize the meeting has been dragging on for 70 minutes. I excuse myself and run to my office, imagining a small Ben and Jerry's cup in a ceremonious puddle on my desk. But no. What I find instead is a thermal bag from the Lindt chocolate store standing upright in the middle of my workspace. I think to myself, "Do they serve ice cream? Ohh! I bet it is good!" I open the bag eagerly and find three pounds of their famous truffles. "Huh. This is odd. I bet Jeff got them for free and he thought I might enjoy them because work has been SO stressful lately. It isn't ice cream, but it is nice."

I grab the bag and head back to the conference room where the meeting is breaking up. I open each of the bags of truffles and offer them to my colleagues, and then fill our chocolate bowl.

*****

Later I speak with Jeff and learn that the truffles weren't a gift for me, but rather candy he bought for himself that he wanted me to ferry around on his behalf.

*grumble*

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Different Perspectives

I drew a very bad picture of Jeff while he and I sat in a bar together. I had been teasing about tattooing a flower on his forehead, or maybe drawing one in permanent magic marker. He wouldn't let me (go figure) so I got my doodlebug on by drawing his picture.


He snorted derisively and said, "That's supposed to be me? I don't look like that." I admit I'm not a remotely talented artist. But I TRIED to capture the shape of Jeff's head, his round cheeks, his messy, vaguely spikey hairstyle, and his square glasses. It wasn't a museum quality, really wasn't even a fridge-worthy, portrait. But I felt I deserved a "B" for effort.

"So I'm not a good drawer," I sniffed defensively. "You try to do better." So he did.



I have nothing else to report.