A few months ago I bought a cheapie stress ball. It started off soft and squishy but has gotten progressively harder to squeeze. People even comment on how stiff it is when they pick it up off my desk. On Tuesday I looked down and noticed it looked crazy. It had shriveled into itself and looked dried and crusty. At first, I thought it was an old plum I had forgotten about, but then I recognized the black circle on the top—it was clearly my stress ball. Freaked, I grabbed a wad of tissues, carefully picked it up and marched over to show my neighbor. “Look what happened to my stress ball! The chemicals completely deformed it!” For emphasis, I knocked it against her desk. “It’s as hard as a rock!” I threw it in the trash and rubbed some hand sanitizer over my hands. Who knew what chemicals were in that thing?!

My co-worker Amanda walked over hiding a smile behind her hand…

“I see you found your gift,” was all she said before dissolving into giggles. She had just been outside with our co-worker Dianna when they saw a rock bearing a striking resemblance to my stress ball. So, they carefully drew a black circle on the top to mimic my stress ball’s markings and made the switch while I was away from my desk. And I wholeheartedly fell for it! Haha. Oh, office shenanigans! They sure got me good.

You have to admit they look pretty similar, no? (Or not, haha).Now whenever I look at the rock on my desk, I’ll see how very clearly it looks like a rock with a black sharpie circle on top and laugh out loud.