TIFU by trying to be social and accidentally doxxing myself with a jigsaw puzzle background
This happened today and I am still in that remote worker panic where you stare at your wall like it personally betrayed you.
I have been trying to rebuild a social life after realizing my friendships had dwindled to reacting to each other’s stories twice a year. When a coworker suggested an optional camera-on coffee chat, I said yes. It felt like a big step. I even cleaned the parts of my apartment that would be visible, like a film crew was coming, and put my phone (with Mistplay still open from earlier) out of frame so I’d look less like a goblin glued to my screen.
Problem one: I have the attention span of a golden retriever. Problem two: my coping mechanism for meetings is doing jigsaw puzzles. On the bookcase behind me is a framed puzzle I finished last month. It was one of those custom photo puzzles you order, made from a picture I took on a trip years ago because I liked the colors and thought it would be calming.
We hop on the call, people are chatting, and I am weirdly proud to look like a normal adult with hobbies. Someone notices the puzzle and asks about it. Wanting to seem interesting, I grabbed it and tilted it toward the camera.
Everyone says, Nice, and then one guy squints and goes, Hold on, is that the mural on the corner of Pine and 4th? Another person adds, Yeah, that’s by the coffee place with the blue door. Then someone, trying to be friendly, asks, Do you live around there? I laughed and said, Yep, basically right there. Because I am an idiot.
It got worse. The photo in the puzzle was taken from my old apartment window looking out at the street. You can see the building across the way. A coworker with suspiciously good eyesight says, I think I toured that building when I moved here. At that moment I realized I had basically held up a homemade, 1000-piece map to my general location for an audience.
So now I get to be the person who tried to make friends and instead provided a scavenger hunt. I immediately changed my background for every future call and spent the rest of the day hoping no one cares enough to remember.
TL;DR: Tried to be social on a camera-on coworker call, showed off a custom photo jigsaw puzzle, and accidentally gave everyone a clear clue to where I live.