I've Been Exposed!

Taking pictures is one of my favourite things to do, and it always has been since I can remember.  I think it has to do with being able to look back and getting to relive all those moments over again, whether its been years, months, or even just a few short weeks since that time has passed.  And since I've had my iPhone, my picture taking has increased from documenting special occasions to things like what I'm going to wear when I go out, meals that I've cooked, what colour I have my nails painted, and the list (as you know) goes on and on and on.  If you actually think about it, these everyday pictures that we take can say a lot about us and the life that we live.

Have you ever wondered how you would feel if someone was to take your phone at this very moment and go through your photos?  Imagine, all those photos that you've been collecting since the very first time you bought your phone, without having a chance to quickly scroll through them to make sure their suitable for viewing?  Think about it.  What would they see?  And if they didn't know you, how would you be perceived?

Well, a few days ago I found this out the humiliating hard way. It's a funny story, really, and by funny I mean crawl under my desk until the rest of time. It all happened because of a low battery on my phone.  You see, every night when I get in bed I always charge my phone so that I never have to worry about it going dead at work (because wouldn't that be just the biggest nightmare ever). This one night I happened to forget and when I woke up the next morning I realized my phone was running on less than twenty percent battery life, so I packed my charger in my purse and when I got into the office, I immediately plugged it into the computer and then started in at my work for the day.  All was well, or so I thought.  About a half hour later I get a call from a co-worker saying, "Renee, do you know that all your personal pictures are uploaded on the company's shared drive?".

This is how I heard it:  Peeersonalll pppicturessss..... coooommmppannnyy...... ssshhharreed dddriiiive.

You've all heard of the fight or flight response, the reaction that occurs when you think you're being threatened and you go in survival mode.  As much as I wanted to flight, I definitely went into crazy fight mode. I started screaming at her (yes, my coworker) "get it off", "erase them", "help me", "can you help?", "what can I do?".  I felt like I was in one of those movies where a person only has a few seconds to diffuse a bomb before it goes off.   I went through so many company files trying to find where my photos were, just hoping to find familiar things or faces staring back at me.  After what felt like a couple of hours (actual time: two minutes), we had managed to delete the folder that I had miraculously created.  I then sat there in dead silence trying to figure out how that had just happened. I didn't press any buttons, nor did I get any notifications that anything was importing.  How was that even possible?

After everything settled,  I spent the remainder of the morning going through over 900 pictures, creating scenarios in my head on how they looked if anyone got a glimpse of them.

Phew, these aren't bad at all.  
Actually they're quite nice.  
I think they show just how much I love my family and friends and how much they mean to me.  
I wish more people could see pictures like this.

 

 

Okay, these still aren't too bad (well, except for that one in the bottom right corner which makes me look like I've never seen a shampoo bottle before).
No big deal, anyone who knows me at work knows how much I love my morning coffee.   
I guess I really don't need to capture every coffee cup that is placed in my hand, though.
Yes, I know that no one is going to take them from me and yes, I know that I can make it at home or buy it anytime, anywhere.  

Oh my babies!
Just look how cute they are...I wonder what they're doing right now?
I hope no one thinks I'm a crazy cat lady mixed in with an obsessive dog momma.
Ah, who am I kidding?  The cat (and dog) is out of the bag on this one!
Besides, what other reason is there to have a phone if it's not to take millions of pictures of your animals?

Oh, dear.

Wait I can explain.
Okay, maybe not the tissue in my nose one.
But the rest I can explain.
Maybe they'll only focus on the one that makes me look like I could be a super athlete.
Please don't fire me.

And there were a few others that didn't make it on this page because they are now deleted from both my phone and memory forever, although I'm pretty sure they'll never be deleted from my co-workers memories if they happened to see (get your mind out of the gutter!).

I still have no idea who saw these or what they saw, and you can be sure that I wasn't going to dig for that information. I went about the rest of my day pretending that it didn't happen, but just in case anyone approached me about this, I had a pretty good plan- denial, denial, denial.  

I mean they couldn't prove it was me, right?