Don't tell Jamie-- he probably lives in Minnesota

Every morning at work I log in to my computer, check my office e-mail to moderate my blog comments, check my personal e-mail, and then my MySpace account. Every morning in that order. The people whose desks are near mine know this too. Morning talk is usually about anything interesting I may find in my inboxes: from exactly how many lonely horny housewives there can be to the time a few weeks ago where I whined in a high pitch, "It's not fair!"

A girl shouts through the cubicle, "What?"

I really truly believe that there are people in my office that I've never spoken to face-to-face, only through our cubicle walls. I shout back, "A guy just found me through my MySpace. I haven't seen him since high school and he turned into a total hottie who 'thinks a lot about the time we spent together.'"

"Well that's good. What's not fair about that?"

"His page says he lives in Minnesota." Then I mumbled under my breath, "I could never live there." I didn't think anyone heard me, but everyone did and erupted in laughter.

And now Minnesota has become the official punchline for me in the office.

All the bosses are out of town this week and I'm spending a few extra minutes going through my inboxes, hoping for something good. All those quizzes everyone's been filling out? Read them.

This morning I hear her through our cubicle barriers talking to the guy next to her, "It's quiet this morning."

Guy: "It's cause everyone is out of town."

"No, that's not it. We usually hear from Jamie about now. Jamie, are you here yet?"

"Yeah, I'm here!" Nice to know everyone looks forward to hearing about my single life like I'm a weekly television show. Or a freak side show.

"What are you doing?"

"Um, I'm looking at this picture I found. Here, I'll send it to you."

Click to enlarge.

I hear them make noises as they look at the picture.

Guy: "You know we have to do this, right?"

Another guy: "Who's going to keep the list?"

Girl: "I will!"

And so we spent the better part of the morning figuring it out. We're up to 78 out of the 100.