Robert Who?

A couple of weeks ago my friend Robert got laid off from his job. The business has been in trouble for a long time. I used to work there myself, and more than a few times I had a cheque bounce, or a phone call from the big boss Mark asking me to wait a few days to deposit my cheque. Still, I was surprised and saddened to hear they had to let him go right before Christmas. I'd been thinking of him in the last few days and so when I saw "Robert has just signed in" pop up in the bottom right corner of my monitor I had to write to see how he was doing. What I didn't realize is that Robert wasn't the only Robert on my contact list. What is even worse is that it took me about 25 minutes to realize I wasn't talking to the right Robert.

I'm on a couple of dating sites, and sometimes I decide to let people chat with me on MSN even though frequently that turns into a nightmare. For whatever reason, maybe I am at work and can't chat, or maybe I just don't feel like it at the moment, sometimes I don't talk to these guys right away and I forget about them. Whatever the reason was, I had no idea this Robert was not the Robert I thought it was. I noticed his status message said he was moving to Edmonton.

I started the conversation with "You're moving?" He replied that he was. "Is it to find a job?" He replied that it was.

I asked if he had found anything yet and he said he was starting at a meat store soon. I said, "but you probably want to find another computer job eh?" He agreed that he would prefer another computer job.

We chatted for a bit longer about Christmas shopping and then the subject of computer jobs came up again. I asked if he missed the work and he said something like "not really, but it is what I do. I miss the guys more than I miss the job." So then I said, "I bet you don't miss Mark though." Robert replied with "??? lol no I don't how did you know???"

I totally thought it was just a sarcastic answer from a guy who I knew wasn't fond of his former boss Mark, but in reality it was just some stranger with the same name who couldn't figure out how on earth I knew about his former co-worker Mark. He was the only person in the conversation who knew who he was talking to, but I bet at this point he was very confused while I was oblivious that anything was out of the ordinary.

He changed the subject to computers and said he took some time to reinstall Windows and that is why he didn't have a picture on his MSN. I didn't even notice because I usually have pictures hidden unless I don't know what the person looks like. Thinking back, this would have been a bit weird for Robert to say to me, and it would make a lot more sense coming from a stranger off a dating site, but after all we had spoken about over the last half an hour, I still had no idea I wasn't speaking to my friend Robert. Then suddenly he said "I love you hair in your MSN picture."

I didn't reply. I was taken aback. It just wasn't a comment I would have expected from Robert at all. Robert is married with three kids, and that seemed just a bit flirty to me. Then he wrote, "It's sexy."

Although I agree my hair is super sexy in that picture*, I know Robert would never have said that. This was the first time that I realized I was talking to the wrong guy! I have to offer an apology to both Roberts! I'm sorry!

I sent this story to my friend Robert and he wrote "That is hilarious... stop hitting on my dopplegangers."

* The picture in question is the same as my current blogger profile picture. It is sexy hair eh?