Good Gossip

(this all happened June 7th)

I believe it is good to take information with a grain of salt, especially when living on an island. I know that often what is being said is second and third hand information and is skewed.

Today my story illustrates how far something said on the coconut phone can go. It was quite funny to watch it all unravel as the day progressed.

It all started as soon as I turned my computer in and logged into MSN. My friend Colly messaged asking me if I had forgotten to tell her something. I hadn’t touched my iced coffee at that point, and was wondering what the heck she was talking about. Then my friend Bill sent me an instant message saying happy birthday, and things started to make some sense. I told them both that it wasn’t my birthday. âWell people seem to think so go check the message board, there is a post for you ” was his reply.

Sure enough I went and saw a âHappy Birthday Tacogirl ❝ post. 10 people had posted on it by the time I got there. Paul and I were laughing over it. I replied in the post to say thanks, but it is not really my birthday. The people who were there chatting at the time had fun making jokes about it

A bit later my friend Beth turned up at the tacoshack with 2 presents in hand. Right away I knew what was up. I explained to Beth that it wasn’t my birthday. âWell here are presents from Pedro and I â Beth said and laughed. She gave me a lovely skirt and Pedro bought me a nice bottle of wine. She said that since she would probably not be here in September (my real birthday) that I could consider it an early gift and went on her way.

A while after Beth left, I went to Island Perk to empty the school donation container, and I ran into Pedro who gave me a big hug and wished me a Happy Birthday. I thanked him for the wine and well wishes and told him it is not my birthday and explained the story. As I left, the Island Perk gang wished me Happy Birthday again and Colleen made a joke that more people will remember this day than my actual birthday now.

When I got back home there was an email from Gail (who had started the thread), she wasn’t sure why she thought today was my birthday. She could not change anything on the message board post as she was at work. She did have a good chuckle at the events that the post had set in motion.

Later that afternoon I rode my bike to a school advisory board meeting. When I walked in the room I was greeted with, you guessed it, another round of Happy Birthday greetings. Everyone thought it was quite funny when I told the whole story, and it became a bit of a joke throughout the meeting. At this point the post has made it to 4 pages long, I got 2 presents and more Happy Birthday greetings, and well wishes than I can count. I am happy that it was good gossip that made the rounds on the coconut phone today.

(This all carried over to the next day too. I was riding past pedro’s on my way to tai chi at the tennis club, and Rudy comes along in his golf cart headed for town calling out happy birthday ha ha.)

Here is the link to the message board post.

My new skirt and bottle of wine – thanks Beth and Pedro