Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Truth?

The employee club at work had another contest. This committee (that I am not on) rolls out another morale boosting effort about every month or two. Some ideas are raffles to raise money for the employee club. They will raffle off tickets to the state fair for example. I do not buy raffle tickets. Gambling is one sin I avoid, mostly because I hate to lose money. This contest was more fun than a raffle.  This contest was about honesty. Each employee was invited to write three things about themselves. Two of the three statements were self-truths and one of the three statements was supposed to be a lie/factoid/fakenews/untruth. When I got my paper inviting me to write three things about myself I had just gotten back from a bus tour of the prairie and I was in a prairie state of mind.  I spent 30 seconds on my entry. Do you want to know what I wrote? I will tell you. 
1. My new nickname is Orange Sioux
2. My new nickname is So Sue Me
3. My new nickname is Sioux Quartzite because it implies that I rock
Today the head of the employee club asked me which one was a lie.  This committee chair is one of the best pranksters I have ever met in my life. He is smooth with his pranks. He never confesses. He remains silent if someone doesn't get the prank. He has pulled some epic pranks over the past 25 years. He is so expert at pulling pranks that I get nervous every time I do the annual inservice on maltreatment of vulnerable adults because I am afraid he's going to pull another one and there I will be, standing in front of the group, speechless and helpless like a deer in the headlights and not knowing if I should laugh or cry.
"Which one is a lie?" he asks me.
"I am not going to tell you," I answer honestly.
"I am the head of the committee. I can't win this contest."
"Oh, okay," I say warily, "I am sorry. I should have seen I was supposed to check which one was a lie. I spent 30 seconds on it because I was in a mood."
I look over the list that I wrote and turned in. All of them are lies. Geez Louise.
I tell him a lie, "Number 2 is a lie."
When I go into the break room at work an hour later all the entries are posted on a white board. I allow myself to read only one of the 15 or so entries in this true or false contest. I can't read them all at once because they are so funny it would be like eating an entire box of bon bons. I read one. I leave snickering quietly so as not to disturb the people who are reading the newspaper and catching a respite from their challenging work.
Do you want to hear some examples?
1. I do not believe in reincarnation. In my previous life as a hamster I did not believe in reincarnation. (Wow. Mind blowing entry from a 60+ year old man)
2. I have been to 3 Lady Gaga concerts. (This is from the committee chair. I know he has been to at least one because he has an unusual child and he is a great father. But he is tricky so this could be the lie because he has been to 4 concerts; not 3)
3. I once had my tongue pierced (and she really doesn't come across as a tongue piercer but tongue piercers are hard to spot these days. Next time I see her I will ask her to stick it out at me so I can examine her tongue for scars)
4. I once went to culinary school and traveled to France on a school trip. (this one I thought was true. This guy's father works there too. I casually ask the father at lunch where he is sitting with his son if the son ever traveled to Paris. The father says yes without hesitation. The son is irate at his father and even more upset with me. The son accuses me of cheating. I admit I did cheat. Sonofagun that was funny.


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