Mistaken Identity Theft...

I stole somebody's identity once. It's true, it happened a few years ago, not as a means to something sinister or for personal profit, or for anything untoward at all for that matter.  It all began as a joke that somehow went awry. But the joke now seems to be on me as this person I ended up deceiving, seems to think I'm somebody they really know...or knew at some point in their life.

This all began when a couple of years ago, I received one of those party evite invitations through my Yahoo email account. I'm going to refer to her as Sheryl Dee.  So I get this evite to to a summer pool party for this person, Sheryl, whom I believe was celebrating her 50th birthday, or something.  The name did not immediately ring a bell, so I thought I would peruse the list of other guests.  Not only did none of the guests' names on this list sound even vaguely familiar, but I noticed that this pool party was taking place in a few weeks, in some small town in Sonoma County, California. When I did a search, I discovered that it was nearby Santa Rosa, just north of the wine country, near the coast.

Well obviously this Sheryl woman had mistaken me for some other Jim Farina, not the most common name, but there are more of us around than I would've guessed. So I did what most anybody would do in such case...I ignored the invitation and went on with my life. Well a few days later, as these evite services are wont to do, I received a follow-up reminder for this party. Sure, I could've simply deleted it, as most normal people might. But my curiosity got the better of me. I opened the evite once again and began reading the responses from people who accepted the invite. There was also a list included on the evite of suggested items to bring - mostly liquor. There were a lot of comments from acceptors along the usual lines:  Can't wait!, I'm there!!, How could I miss this!!!. some of the comments lead me to assume that this might've been a reunion of sorts, or from people who'd not seen each other for some years. One person seemed to suggest that they had some cosmetic enhancements done. A strange thing to put in a response, but hey, it is California.

I was intrigued.  I couldn't resist. So I accepted the invitation and said something along the lines of:  "Count me in!  I will bring the Vodka!"  And then I said something like, "I've had some work done myself, but will wait till were at poolside to unveil - you might want to have a couple drinks first!" So now that I responded, I received an email each time anybody else responded, either accepting or declining the invitation.

This was too much fun. I shared with some friends what I had done and we followed the prank up until the party date had eventually come and gone. I thought it interesting and mused at the fact that famous film director, Alfred Hitchcock, who had produced many works around this theme of mistaken identity, loved this area of northern California. Hitchcock, in fact filmed two movies: The Birds, and Shadow of a Doubt in the areas of Bodega Bay and Santa Rosa, respectively.  And here I was stealing another Jim Farina's identity and playing out a true, at least in my own head, Hitchockian drama.

Well many weeks had passed and I'd all but forgotten about this silliness, when I received an email from Sheryl Dee, the host and honoree of this pool party.  Thankfully, I was not the sole recipient of this sad message. There were about a dozen others who were receiving this same message. Sheryl wanted us all to know that her father had just passed away after she'd spent some days at his bedside as his life slowly ebbed away.

I wasn't quite sure how to respond to this news. I couldn't just ignore this and continue on like nothing happened. It's just not in my nature. Obviously there was the "real" Jim Farina someplace who needed to know about this tragic passing of Sheryl Dee's father. I decided, pretty much on the spot, there was only one thing to do, and that was to immediately come clean with everything. The proverbial jig was up!

So I sent Sheryl a message telling her everything. How I was having fun with her evite and assumed the identity of some other Jim Farina, I lived in Chicago and had only been in her area once on vacation to San Francisco. I then expressed my sympathy at the loss of her father and told her that I hope I didn't cause too many problems and that hopefully somebody else brought the vodka.  Sheryl was very understanding of everything. She thanked me for my honesty and told me that I was a very nice and sincere person. End of story? Not really.

Some months ago, Sheryl Dee sent me a LinkedIn request to join her network. I have this weird rule, like many of my quirky rules that govern my life. I NEVER send friend requests on either Facebook or Join my Network requests on Linkedin. If you are connected to me by any of these means, it is because I accepted a request from you. So if you are somebody who abides by the same rule as I do, chances are we will never be connected via social media. Does Sheryl continue to think I am the Jim Farina that she apparently knew from someplace else in her life?  And then a few weeks ago, she endorses my expertise...

Can she not see my profile picture? I don't know you, Sheryl Dee!!!!  Is this some kind of a twisted payback for how I duped her with the whole party thing?  I'm not really sure.  One thing I know - two can play at this game. I took a break about midway through writing up this blogpost to endorse her work in Vancouver, Canada...  And so the drama continues...