So, I have, or had, this coffee mug, which I’ve had for like a decade or so. It says “wake the fuck up,” in this distressed typewriter or whatever punk font it was, that I got from unamerican activities way back in the day. I brought it to the office because we had this offensive, PC, campaign to stop using so many paper cups that have that weird, styrofoamy textured coating on them for our coffee, and to bring in our own mug.

The WTFU mug was one of two mugs that I had with me for the office, the other being the logo mug that I stole from Seagate, when I worked for them. I had some trepidation about carrying it around the office, bringing it to meetings, etc., but I figured I would ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

But, so.

I washed this mug thoroughly one night, and left it in the dish rack in the kitchen to dry. I left it there a day or two, then went to fetch it and put some coffee into it. It was no longer there. It wasn’t in the dishwasher, or in any of the cupboards. Just gone. OK, I thought, someone found it offensive and threw it away, no big deal.

At least I didn’t get into trouble.

But weeks later, I saw it drying in the dish rack again. Someone grabbed it, used it (possibly multiple times) and washed it, leaving it to dry. I didn’t grab it at that point, and it promptly disappeared the next time I went into the kitchen.

It gives me a misplaced feeling of pride that some unknown person — probably someone I don’t particularly like, or who at least is sort of afraid of me — is using this mug of mine without asking, or even knowing it belongs to me.