That's not me--Panama edition

A few odd things happened in Panama. The strangest was a recurring case of mistaken identity, one I'd forgotten to blog about. When I returned to my room Tuesday evening I found an invitation in my room from the Embassy of Paraguay--to attend a reception celebrating their bicentennial. The reception was the next day in the hotel, so I assumed all guests were invited. At dinner later with my co-workers, I asked if they wanted to attend the reception.

They had no idea what I was talking about. They were not invited.

After dinner I checked with the hotel and I was the only guest invited to the reception. The Embassy invited me. I don't know how they knew I was there, but this has happened before. They thought I was someone else. There is a fellow out there with my name (but different spelling) who is involved in international relations. I passed on the reception. While the mistaken identity started out as fun a few years ago, it got to be annoying.

First (a few years ago) I received a holiday card from a Saudi ambassador. I didn't know why. Then I got invited to a reception for the German ambassador at the US Capitol building. Still I didn't know why. But I went and had a great time--they had amazing food. I spoke with the ambassador for a few minutes and the place was crawling with Senators, but no one I'd voted for. Then I started getting phone calls from TV and radio stations wanting to interview me--I thought they meant it was a survey of some sort and I kept hanging up on them. There were more cards and more receptions and it was all good fun. But the phone calls really got on my nerves--one girl in particular. Why did she care what I thought???

Then I got invited to something really cool. An after-party for the White House correspondent's dinner. My wife wanted to go with me and made me call to see if I could bring a guest. A few questions and answers later and the mistake was corrected--I was uninvited. There have been a few invitations since then, but nothing worth attending. But the calls continued--especially from that one girl.

Finally, instead of hanging up on her, I asked, "Why the heck do you care so much what I think???" She responded, "Well, you are the country's leading expert on 'Frackistan'!" I almost said we should nuke them back to the stone age. But I only thought about saying that--I didn't want to risk starting an international incident by teasing one reporter who didn't know how to spell her target's name...or that he lived in a different state. On the plus side, at least after that I knew why I was getting the invitations.

Somehow it never occurred to me to blog about that--until I got the invitation in Panama.

Hmm, did anything else happen in Panama that I could blog about? I can't remember at the moment--it's past my bedtime. Good night and thanks for stopping by! =)


PS - Originally, the mistaken identity started because a former boss insisted my name go into a Federal listing--even though I wasn't a Federal employee. The cards started coming to my office at first and later to my home.