i had a war games moment at work today that’s still got me–along with our best in-house IT people–a little puzzled.

because i knew i couldn’t live with myself on monday if i didn’t clean my desk before i left today, i was moving keyboards and mousepads and mice around (i work off of two thin clients so i can access more than one database at the same time and because i like to multi-task like nobody’s business) to wipe down the surface of my desk.

i must have set something down on one of my keyboards because all of sudden the screen on the database i was working on started throwing errors at me and beeping like crazy. i tried to clear the keyboard and replace the mouse and i looked up at the error message. it read something to the effect of:

enter the…
…and press return: Dalene

that might not seem so strange to you, but this particular database is accessible to numerous people in the company and we all use the same log-in. and, i can use it whether or not i am logged into my personal profile. there is no way the database or anyone working on it could have even known who was using it.

unlike governor schwarzenegger, i am smart enough at math to be quite sure it’s a statistical impossibility that i could have typed my own name (particularly with a capital D–you know by know how i feel about caps) accidentally while wiping down my keyboard.

i asked both our IT guy and the brain behind our local operation and both were sure it was impossible. i’m not quite sure they even believe me that it happened. fortunately i did show one other employee before i cleared the screen and exited the database, but i’m still a bit curious as to how this could have happened.

of course my co-workers have a completely logical and reasonable explanation. the name of the particular database that called me out is the same name as a famous horror movie villian.

–next friday is friday the 13th.

–the completely fictional serial killer is stalking me.

–this was his first contact.

–more will follow.

–and when i’m least expecting them.

of course i reassured everyone i could totally kick (insert name of favorite horror movie villain here)’s trash.

stay tuned same time next week for more of what i like to call freaky friday!