Last week I was one of many recipients in a bulk email sent by an associate of mine. I have spoken with her on the phone and we have exchanged emails. Though I have never seen a picture of her, I shared a picture of my family with her once. She lives on the east coast and I am in California. We aren’t friends, but we are friendly. We’ve “known” each other for 7 years.
Anyway, the subject line in the email was, “Aloha!” and she was informing us all that she would be on vacation for two weeks, returning to work on the 14th. Good for her, I thought. She’s had some rough times and she works really hard. She deserves a vacation.
And then yesterday happened. I was once again one of many recipients in a bulk email from the same associate, on her company email. The subject line read, “Pictures.” The only thing in the body of the email was her company signature line. Excited to see pictures of her drinking something fruity with an umbrella sticking out of it on a clean white beach, or standing on her balcony with the sunset behind or maybe a photograph of the dancers at a luau made me very excited for her.
Each of the pictures were smallish. The first was a pool of water with a waterfall flowing into it. I was a bit surprised. I had no idea that 1) An iPhone could take such an awesome picture or 2) SHE could take such an awesome picture. The second picture was an absolutely beautiful peninsula filled with bright colors. This one was also smallish, and taken from afar. Hmmmm…Picture number three was taken close to the shore with water splashing on the sand and flanked with green plants. Okay, no.
I went to Google Images and typed, “Maui.” All three photographs were in the top six, with the first picture in the number one spot.
What. The. Heck? I mean, what’s going on? Is she not in Maui, and in fact in rehab? Is she secretly at work and monitoring us all? Is she a hoarder and everything was being removed from her house for the T.V. show while she fought and cried for empty milk jugs or magazines from 1976 while the crew threw away dead cats and cans of food from 10 years ago?
I wish I could email her and either call her out or just compliment her – just for the reaction. Maybe I could email a close co-worker and find out if she’s in the hospital for “exhaustion.” Or maybe “Reply-All” and say, “Hey, does anybody else think this is odd?”
Instead I will forever wonder, going slowly crazy(er) and never, ever know the truth behind the Google Image Maui shots from my associate’s “Maui Vacation.”
