Myrtle
08-01-2003, 03:36 PM
I've posted the below story on the News, Views & gossip string, but wanted to share it with the "ZOO" as I believe a few of you might get a chuckle or two while reading it.....
Truth is sometimes stranger than Fiction…….
I thought that I'd pass on the following story to my fellow 2+2 members, as it actually happened to another 2+2'er……….
Let me set the stage: The following occurred 2 days after the US invaded Iraq. Names have been changed to protect the embarrassed. My friend Al (2+2'er) is engaged to Olga. Olga has recently emigrated from Russia to the USA, and still has many friends back in the Motherland, with whom she communicates via the internet. Their wedding day is rapidly approaching, and they're both running around like crazy firming up all the details. They also happen to work at the same company, and both have been totally overloaded with work for the past few weeks. Needless to say, the pressure has been a bit more than usual.
In any case, the story unfolds…….Olga receives an e-mail from a good friend back in Minsk, essentially accusing her of being a traitor and a terrorist for moving to America and bombing Iraq. The e-mail hits a very sensitive nerve, and Olga is now very upset. This caps off a very hectic work day (Olga's puter keeps crashing) and being a graphic artist, it's put her way behind. As Al has an appointment around 4pm that day, they both head off, as he's going to drop her at home so she can chill out, and then go to his appointment.
In the car on the way home, Olga is totally frazzled & begins to hyperventilate from the day's events. The good Russian lass that she is, she asks Al to stop and pick up a 5th of Stoly to help calm her down. Great guy that he is, he does so, drops her off at the apartment, and proceeds on his way to his appointment.
After a few good belts of Stoly (3 or 4 anyway), Olga is now somewhat relaxed and winding down back at the ranch. She then gets a phone call from Al's mother, asking for Al. Mom says that their company has just received a bomb threat, and was calling to see if Al was safe at home. Of course, Olga now being at least 3 sheets to the wind, doesn't get it right, and "hears" mom saying that they've actually been bombed & that they're outside waiting for the police to come!
The plot now thickens………Just about the same time as Al's mom makes the call, there is a very loud "BOOM" outside Olga's apartment, rattling the windows and what's left of Olga's alcohol-saturated sanity. She's now convinced that work has been bombed and thinks that bombs are now going off outside and on the close-by freeway (where she thinks Al is). Then….. another loud BOOM outside, and she now hears screams coming from the street! She's got CNN turned on the tube & frantically trying to get some news about what she is now convinced is some sort of terrorist attack happening all around her!
By now, Olga is totally freaked out (besides being totally plastered), and can't remember anyone's phone number. So………….. she picks up the phone, gets through to the operator and asks to be connected to her relatives back in North Carolina.
The operator, sensing Olga's panic, asks if she can help, and Olga blurts out that her work has been bombed, and now bombs are going off around her house!
The operator then connects her to "somewhere" (we still don't know where she ended up & who she ended up talking to), but Olga asks them where they are and if they know what's going on. The woman on the other end of the line tells Olga that she…….."cannot give out that sort of information….".
Olga is now about ready to jump out the window, but, thankfully Al walks through the door……..
As he tells it, it took a while (and a sleeping pill or two) to calm Olga down…..
Just goes to show ya what the right combination of stress, Stoly, CNN, paranoia and sonic booms can cause.
Truth is sometimes stranger than Fiction…….
I thought that I'd pass on the following story to my fellow 2+2 members, as it actually happened to another 2+2'er……….
Let me set the stage: The following occurred 2 days after the US invaded Iraq. Names have been changed to protect the embarrassed. My friend Al (2+2'er) is engaged to Olga. Olga has recently emigrated from Russia to the USA, and still has many friends back in the Motherland, with whom she communicates via the internet. Their wedding day is rapidly approaching, and they're both running around like crazy firming up all the details. They also happen to work at the same company, and both have been totally overloaded with work for the past few weeks. Needless to say, the pressure has been a bit more than usual.
In any case, the story unfolds…….Olga receives an e-mail from a good friend back in Minsk, essentially accusing her of being a traitor and a terrorist for moving to America and bombing Iraq. The e-mail hits a very sensitive nerve, and Olga is now very upset. This caps off a very hectic work day (Olga's puter keeps crashing) and being a graphic artist, it's put her way behind. As Al has an appointment around 4pm that day, they both head off, as he's going to drop her at home so she can chill out, and then go to his appointment.
In the car on the way home, Olga is totally frazzled & begins to hyperventilate from the day's events. The good Russian lass that she is, she asks Al to stop and pick up a 5th of Stoly to help calm her down. Great guy that he is, he does so, drops her off at the apartment, and proceeds on his way to his appointment.
After a few good belts of Stoly (3 or 4 anyway), Olga is now somewhat relaxed and winding down back at the ranch. She then gets a phone call from Al's mother, asking for Al. Mom says that their company has just received a bomb threat, and was calling to see if Al was safe at home. Of course, Olga now being at least 3 sheets to the wind, doesn't get it right, and "hears" mom saying that they've actually been bombed & that they're outside waiting for the police to come!
The plot now thickens………Just about the same time as Al's mom makes the call, there is a very loud "BOOM" outside Olga's apartment, rattling the windows and what's left of Olga's alcohol-saturated sanity. She's now convinced that work has been bombed and thinks that bombs are now going off outside and on the close-by freeway (where she thinks Al is). Then….. another loud BOOM outside, and she now hears screams coming from the street! She's got CNN turned on the tube & frantically trying to get some news about what she is now convinced is some sort of terrorist attack happening all around her!
By now, Olga is totally freaked out (besides being totally plastered), and can't remember anyone's phone number. So………….. she picks up the phone, gets through to the operator and asks to be connected to her relatives back in North Carolina.
The operator, sensing Olga's panic, asks if she can help, and Olga blurts out that her work has been bombed, and now bombs are going off around her house!
The operator then connects her to "somewhere" (we still don't know where she ended up & who she ended up talking to), but Olga asks them where they are and if they know what's going on. The woman on the other end of the line tells Olga that she…….."cannot give out that sort of information….".
Olga is now about ready to jump out the window, but, thankfully Al walks through the door……..
As he tells it, it took a while (and a sleeping pill or two) to calm Olga down…..
Just goes to show ya what the right combination of stress, Stoly, CNN, paranoia and sonic booms can cause.