We'd scheduled a weekend at a beach house a couple of months ago, and even though I was still feeling pretty lousy, I thought to myself, "Self? You're going to feel lousy whether you're at home or whether you're relaxing with a view of the ocean."

'Self' thought that was a pretty good way of thinking about it, because after all we weren't out to do anything more strenuous than read books and watch movies.

We went with another couple that we hang out with a lot, but hanging with them is just like hanging with ourselves. If it were anyone else, I probably would have canceled, but they're very easy to be around. I was either laying or sitting 95% of the time.

We went out yesterday for about an hour, because their son (one of my FAVORITE kids) brought one of his friends with him and he wanted to buy a souvenir for his mom.

Sidenote- the poor kid didn't realize what the coffee mug REALLY meant that he bought for his mom. I just couldn't tell him because he was one of those really geeky kids that would have turned inside out with embarrassment. I'll let his mom explain it to him. The mug had a picture of a pirate who had a sword with a thong hanging on the end. The caption read, "Give up the booty".

Yeah.

This outing turned out to be a pip because it provided me with my favorite story of the weekend. I was accosted by a do-gooder while we were out.

I have a sweatshirt that reads:

Social Engineering Specialist
Because there's no patch for human stupidity


It's Information Security Geek humor. If you don't know what it is, here's a long explanation for you. If you don't want to look it up; in a nutshell- social engineering is tricking people into giving you information that you shouldn't have.

Anyhoo.....

I saw a woman who seemed in her 50's looking at me with disdain. I saw her point me out to her husband and then she marches (and I mean MARCHES) up to me and loudly says, "Would you like to explain to me what you mean by that shirt?" She was clearly out to expose me as a fraud to everyone on the store. I don't think she was more than three inches away from my face; pointing her finger at.me.with.every.syllable.

I was a little shocked by her tone and volume, but answered her question. I explained that I'm an information security manager and this is just good geeky humor. I started to explain what social engineering is (always the teacher, right?), and why the shirt was SATIRE but she stopped me and said that she knows what social engineering is because she's a trainer for a credit union. She then apologized for 'calling me out' in front of everyone in the store. I was my usual gracious self, but awfully sad that this wasn't caught on video because it was HILARIOUS.

I wanted to tell her that she's not nearly as clever as she thinks she is because A REAL social engineering 'specialist' would never advertise their career choice because it's kind of hard to trick people when you're telling them that you're a con artist.

We passed her again on our way back to the car and she held up her fist in solidarity and said, "sisters in security, right?"

Yeah, right.

As for me, I am feeling better. I'm not 100%, but the tart stuff doesn't send me over the edge in pain anymore. I tested it out on water with a lime squeezed in it last night. I can drool without pain- yay! I'm not going to tell my co-workers about the mumps because I was the butt of too many jokes when I had scarlett fever a few weeks ago. I also don't want people to freak out that I'm some sort of Typhoid Mary. I told my manager that I had 'intestinal distress'. You know--- what normal people get and something nobody wants to hear details about.

I hope y'all had a fab 3-day weekend. I'm planning to spend the rest of the day sitting on my couch, and visiting my friends. Can you believe I was not on the computer for 2 days in a row?

See ya in the 'hood.