Fun At Work… and Other Stuff

36 Replies

Sometimes my boss and I have to find creative ways to entertain ourselves at work in order to survive the madness of dealing with the general public.  She’s only 2 months older than I, so we completely understand each other and think along the same lines.

On Instagram, a fake male profile followed me and then promptly sent me a private message.  I knew it was a fake… I’m not gullible nor an idiot… so I told my boss that I wanted to mess with him.  My boss wanted in on the fun… so she told me what to write back.  The following conversation ensued:

 

Nigeria.  Wow.  I cannot believe people still use that scam.  Even my child was smarter than that. Of course, my side of the conversation is the one in blue.  Continuing on…

If you are American and not 12 years old, you would understand the reference of ruby slippers. And so endeth our conversation.  He didn’t like my response that Glenda could help him. Maybe the scammers have a “no-contact list” and I’ve made it.  But if it happens again, we’re going for gold.  I will help the scammer… at least they will think I’m helping from the replies I send.

Oh… BTW… if you get a follow from “whitlockchristopher95” on IG, it’s a total scam.  Hopefully he won’t be around for too much longer… I’ve reported him.

Moving on…

I’ve given up on my training “weekly recaps,” sorry.  Those posts don’t work for me, way too much negative. You’ll just have to wait and see if I finish the marathon on October 22nd… your guess is as good as mine.  If I don’t finish, it certainly won’t be from lack of training.  It’ll be because my spirit animal is the “turtle.” #truth  (but I did run 12 miles today, even though the heat sucked the life out of me)

However, on that note, next weekend I have a half-marathon race… the Seattle Craft Classic. The following weekend, we’ve signed up for the Sounders Rave Green Run (purely for the bling as this past year our soccer team won the MLS championship and we’ll get the championship medal), and the weekend after that, I have the North County Wine Run Half-Marathon. September is an extremely busy month, but the race experience will do me good in getting rid of the nerves I’ll experience on the day of the marathon.  I hope.

As well…

My 12-year-old son is now taller than me.  He has it in writing from the doctor and everything. He’s officially 5 feet 8 inches.  At 12.  99th percentile.  I’m thrilled that he’s so tall, and he loves rubbing it in.  He will bypass his father by this time next year.  He also starts 7th grade on Wednesday.

And finally…

Last Friday we lost a very special blogger friend.  Terry from Spearfruit passed on.  Terry had bladder cancer, for which there is no cure.  I started following him back in 2015 after my brother passed away from cancer, hoping for answers.  Funny enough, I did get my answers about a month ago. Terry was always upbeat, positive, accepted his diagnosis, knew he was dying, but never failed to tell his friends “have a happy day.”

Back when Terry was healthier, he would do a “boogie” type of video to the best 70’s music.  It was just silly fun.  He enjoyed doing it.  He enjoyed making his friends smile.  And we all enjoyed it in return.  To Terry, I hope you’re boogieing all night long now.

The following is one of his last happy boogies.  Even his husband Gary danced in it.  They took a cruise at the end of last year and had a bang-up time as they knew full well it would be Terry’s last.

Enjoy this with the fun spirit intended… and never forget to tell your loved ones how you feel today… as tomorrow may be too late.

36 thoughts on “Fun At Work… and Other Stuff”

    1. Paula Post author

      Thank you so much Mike! I’ll be interested to see if my training has helped make my halfs stronger… if it hasn’t, then I may as well throw in the towel, lol! (NOT, I’m kidding… I don’t quit, hehe) 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  3. lynne hoareau

    Awww what a beautiful video, so lovely to see that again, and even though Terry was sick, he looked well then, compared to how the cancer really took over these last few months. Thank you Paula for that, you have made me smile with tears in my eyes, Such a beautiful man, inside and out. He really is going to be missed.
    And you my girl are going to kill those up and coming marathons…You are going to do great !
    Don’t worry about your son towering over you, it happens…you are still in charge LOL
    Hahaha love your response the the scammer – hopefully he will think twice before pulling such a move again.
    Have a good one….Happy training. x

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      Thank you Lynne! You are so my sunshine on a cloudy day!!
      I wanted to actually travel to Florida and do a boogie with me, Terry, Gary, and James (and run a race, of course), but I thought he’d be granted more time. His boogies were one of my favorite features about his blog, :D. XXOO

      Like

      Reply ↓
  4. cat h bradley

    Sorry for your loss Paula. He seemed like a great guy.
    Interesting you are walking away from the training recaps, I’ve been considering doing the same for a while! While I don’t feel negativity around them necessarily I’m just not sure they are too interesting for anyone else! Every time I post one I think, “why would anyone want to read this!!” But, I had more than one person tell me before I started training to keep a journal, and that I’d really appreciate going back to it later on and remembering all the work and feelings and struggles and triumphs during training. So I guess that’s the only reason I keep on doing them–just taking that advice. (Although I guess that advice never said I had to make the entries public!) Anyway, you just made me think over here. I know I’ll enjoy whatever you replace those posts with. 😉

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      I’m with you… yes, definitely keep record, but I personally will stick with Strava or Garmin notes. I know other runners would be interested in the training updates, so I was kind of torn by the decision. However, I’m going to stick to what I’ve always done and celebrate my milestone successes, and leave out the minute details, :D. If you enjoy writing your weekly recaps, I say continue on. I do enjoy reading them! They just weren’t my favorite writing topic, if that makes sense. 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  5. Garfield Hug

    Sorry about your friend’s passing. Sigh! Loved the way you replied the scammer. It was way cool! I wish you all the best in your coming marathon. Oh just to share we have a very popular marathon that garners participants from the world. Try googling STANDARD CHARTERED BANK MARATHON. It has great prizes and I think you might win it👍😃

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      Hahaha, don’t think I would win. I did google it and it’s a huge race. The elite runners would come out for this one, 😀 But I so greatly appreciate your vote of confidence, that makes me smile so much! Thank you!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  6. wanderwolf

    Oh man. The start of this post had me laughing (did you tell him he has to say “there’s no place like home”?) and the end kind of crying. Life is a weirdly mixed bag. Thank you for sharing about Terry.
    How is AJ so tall?! 🙂
    Sorry you’re not continuing the recaps, but you have enough running to do where I’m sure the time will be well spent. September looks like a fun, busy month!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      LOL, I’m glad you appreciate my sense of humor with the scammer! My boss and I had great fun messing with him! Now I’m eagerly awaiting the next one, haha!
      I don’t do very well at writing the recaps, but I will continue to celebrate my successes… you will be the first one to know when I complete that 20-miler!! 😀 xoxo

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  8. runningtotravel

    I love your IG story! That’s great! I’ve gotten emails from people (most of the time from Nigeria) claiming to have “millions” of dollars, if only I would send them my social security number and address, they would send it to me. I wonder how many people fell for that one? Hopefully not many. I’m with you on not feeling it to write up weekly running recaps. I’m just not into that either because I feel like they’re boring and no one else would care. I read other people’s and they always seem more interesting than mine. Good luck at the half!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      Thanks Donna! It’s nice to know you understand completely where I’m coming from with the recaps! They’re just not me, lol! And oh my, those scammers. What idiots. I feel so bad for the people who actually fall for the scams, and yet, I still hear about people who do. It’s kind of like, what type of rock have you been living under for the past decade! Thankfully they now teach internet safety to all the kids. The kids may not know how to write in cursive anymore, but they know how to spot a scammer! Lol, guess we can’t have everything, right?! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  10. Lady G

    1. I thought I was going to fall over with laughter at your responses to “stuck in Nigeria.”
    LOL! I just got an e-mail from a “banker” in Nigeria asking me for personal information so that he can send me my unclaimed 16.9 million dollars! WTF?
    2. Very sorry to hear about Terry, I will miss seeing his avatar; he was quite active on many of the sites that I follow. He is now in perfect love and peace.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      Yeah, Terry was special, and he’ll be missed, but his memory will live on (as will his avatar as his husband is keeping his site up, 😃).
      Can you believe those scammers!! I feel so sorry for the people who fall for any of that nonsense!! If they’re savvy enough to have an online account, you would think they would be savvy enough not to fall for that rubbish! Funny enough I haven’t been contacted again yet, lol. 😁😚

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
      1. Lady G

        Good to know that we’ll still see Terry around. We already know that he’s still around in spirit.
        And nope, you will not be approached by that “Prince” again! LOL!!!

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Doctor Jonathan

    There are so many princes facing serious hostilities (at least according to the emails I receive on a pretty regular basis. 🙂

    Terry went through an awful lot. Hopefully he is now free from the pain and challenging life he has had to live for so long.

    Don’t sweat the marathon. I guarantee the pressure you place on yourself will outweigh any pressures you readers provide. We simply want you to enjoy the experience!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  13. Chocolaterunsjudy

    Although my uncle had bladder cancer, it’s not what killed him. No, obesity and smoking did. In fact, he dropped dead on a heart attack on my 14th birthday.

    I’m sorry for your loss, but it sounds like Terry lived life to the fullest.

    September is just filled with long runs for me . . . no races til the next half. And when that’s over, there will probably be some races cause it’s the right time of year and this weather is my running jam for sure. Just praying we haven’t used up all our good running weather before the half!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      Yes, Terry will be missed greatly around WordPress, but his spouse is now in the process of learning how to take over, so his blog still lives.

      I hope the weather gods are good to you. It finally sprinkled yesterday and cleared out our air. We are so thankful! It has felt like the apocalypse around here!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      LOL, thanks Lynn! Yeah, I don’t think IG removed his account though, sadly. They just blocked him from me, but then he “unfollowed” me a couple of days later, so he’s still out there somewhere.

      I loved that boogie video of the two of them, one of the best… but Terry had a lot of great boogies, didn’t he!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s