Before the trip home, a little e-mail humiliation...

There's this guy that works in our medical department. Or used to at least, his last day was the day we left for Michigan, because he got a job somewhere else. Anyhow, this guy was like in his 50's, very nice, but in a creepy way, if you know what I mean. Let me explain a little further:

When I first got here, he was nice, professional, did my physical, and I had no reason to not let him at the time. Then, I got on this kick where I was trying to lose weight, but didn't want to look at the scale. I'm sure many of you ladies out there know what that's like. So I decided that the best way to do this, was to stand on a scale backwards, and have someone else read it and write it down and track my progress, but never tell me what the number was. Just if I was up or down, and sometimes if the modd struck me, by how much. The medical guy, well, since he was right here on site, and he's a medical professional and knew how much I weighed anyhow, seemed like the perfect candidate. So I asked him if he minded me stopping in once a month for my stand on the scale backwards weigh in, and he told me no problem. He would track it in my chart.

Now that I've laid the groundwork, let me tell you what a bad bad idea that was.

So everytime I went there, he would weigh me, write it down, not tell me, but then tell me how awesome I looked and that he didn't even think I needed to lose any weight. Nice. Ok. Then he started telling me how hot I was. Inappropriate, but maybe he's just trying to build my self esteem because he knows I am obviously self conscious of my weight, if I don't even want to know what it is. Then he tells me one day, while weighing me, that I smell really really good. But he says it kinda creepy. I'm starting to think it's too far, and I quit making any small talk with him, and make sure that any small talk involves talking about my fiancee (at the time), Kevin.

Unfortunately, this curbs nothing, it only causes him to start telling me how I should reconsider marrying Kevin, basically because he wants to date me. Whatever. Like I'm interested in dating a guy older than my own father. So I quit going over there for my backwards weight loss plan. Which was a shame, because I had dropped like 7 pounds by then, which was pretty nice.

Of course, this doesn't stop me from seeing him occasionally, because I still have to have physicals and drug tests, and he makes a few more comments, one saying that he's going on vacation, and "Oh God, do I ever wish I could take you with me, we would have a great time together". Yuck. Whatever. I try to totally avoid now.

So a couple weeks ago, he sends a site wide e-mail saying that he's leaving for another job.

Then, the day before he leaves, he sends another one reminding us that the next day is his last day. Seems kinda funny. I talk to Kevin, and mention that seems funny that he sent two notices, did he forget he sent the first one? Kevin says "He's probably sending it out again because he didn't get the reaction that he was hoping for before he left."

Awww. That's sad. Poor guy. Not very many people are acknowledging his leaving? That's really sad. I mean ok, so he said a few icky things, but I didn't want him to have hurt feelings. I felt kinda bad for him, and I thought "What's the harm in wishing him well?" This is where my poor judgement comes into play. I sent him an e-mail that said good bye, and good luck at your new job. That was all it said. He wrote back and said you are welcome, I'm happy to have served you. Hmm. Weird. I never thanked him. So I write again--yes, thanks for all your help. Enjoy your new position! He wrote back something much longer this time, that ended with his pager number and a comment that "If only I was a few years younger and you weren't married....mmmmmm.....well, just in case you need me, here's my pager number."

Ha! Creepy again. See what I get for being nice? You must be freakin' joking. Oh well, it's ok, it's actually pretty funny, right? And now that he's leaving, I can laugh about it maybe tell a few people and mabe they can laugh too. Here I am this obese girl trying to lose weight, and am constantly getting hit on. Ha! So I was talking to a guy from another group that afternoon, and told him about the e-mail. He was like man, I always thought that guy was gay. I was like yeah, I heard that, but well, seems like he might not be. So my friend says "I could use a good laugh, can you send it to me?"

Sure. I go back to my computer, and instead of hitting FORWARD, I hit REPLY. But don't notice yet. Then I type in the letter "So after all the 'you smell so good', 'don't marry Kevin', and 'come on vacation with me' comments, I get this...."

Send.

I IMMEDIATELY realized that it was weird that I didn't have to type in the guy's e-mail address--oh crap, what did I do--I REPLIED??????? Sh&t!!!!

My heart started pumping like crazy, I felt a cold sweat, and I actually saw spots. My fingers flew over the keyboard, frantically trying to guess where that Micrsoft 'recall' function is. I find it, I try to recall it, and nothing happens. I try to recall again. Then I freak out, walk away, tell my friend in my group (I don't remember what I've called him in the past, let's call him Scott) that I've done the most horrible thing in the world. He appropriately looks horrified, gasps, and accompanies me back to my computer to see what happened. When we get there--a little note says recall successful. Then one comes in that says recall failed--what the??? Scott told me that's because I tried to recall it twice. We e-mail each other back and forth a few times just to see how that recall function works, you know, make sure it actually really works. Scott reads the letter I sent, and tells me he doesn't think it is that bad, worst case scenario the guy will think I am hitting on him, if the recall didn't work, and he actually saw it. Phew! I would totally rather him think I was coming on to him than to mortify him in some way. I mean ok, he was a little creepy, and wholly inappropriate, but that doesn't mean I want to make him feel like total crap.

I've learned my lesson. No more forwarding e-mails that are 'delicate'. I still don't know for sure if he was able to see it. If he did, he never said anything, and now he doesn't work here.

God it was awful though. My mom got a huge laugh out of it. So did Kevin, who of course, thought the guy deserved to feel like crap because he hated the fact that the guy was always making those comments to me. In fact, I quit telling Kevin about it. At first I told him because I thought it was kinda funny, but Kevin never saw any humor in it, so, I quit telling him. So he thought this was awesome, and I think was secretly hoping the guy got the letter.

I'm not hoping that though. I hope the recall worked.