RE-currency
Weird.
I was just at the printer collecting my powerpoint presentations on Approaching a Patient with Sleep Complaints and on Parasomnia. A doctor I'd never met was standing there with one of the secretaries, also waiting for a printout. While she was pulling mine out carelessly while chatting with the doctor, which is not necessarily problematic but annoying because now the whole thing is out of order and the pages aren't numbered, the doctor looked down at the pages and said, "Mmm. Parasomnia."
They continued to chat. I said, "There is another one [document] coming about the same size as that one."
The doctor looked at me and said, "Do you know Dr. ____?"
As my mouth was forming the shape to say No, the secretary interrupted and said, "I do, and I used to send you dictations all the time. All the time actually."
He turned back to me and said, "I'm wondering if you know Dr. ____. There was someone working with him who has a Western European accent, which I believe I hear [knowing wink], and she looked a lot like you. Belgian?" he asked.
"No," I said. "That's funny, though. People often think I have an accent. I'm from Illinois actually. Central Illinois."
"Oh," he said. "Well, now I know what a Central Illinois accent sounds like."
"Well," I countered, "I don't talk like people from Central Illinois. I don't know how it happened, but I talk differently than everyone in my family."
"Black sheep," the secretary suggested.
"Of the whole state," I added.
The doctor said, "As a Lansing, Michigan resident, I can tell you that isn't a Midwestern accent."
Then the secretary asked me how my brother is, if he'd been shipped overseas.
Where did that come from? And what lack of tact. What if he had been "shipped out". My brother is a newbie in the nuclear program of the Navy, which I'd told her months ago.
This scene is representative of two recurrencies:
1. People who are insecure and need to draw attention to themselves no matter how flimsy the marionette strings.
2. People consistently ask me what country I'm from because of the way I look or speak. Most of the time the guess is France. Belgium is new. This trend fascinates me and I love it.
I was just at the printer collecting my powerpoint presentations on Approaching a Patient with Sleep Complaints and on Parasomnia. A doctor I'd never met was standing there with one of the secretaries, also waiting for a printout. While she was pulling mine out carelessly while chatting with the doctor, which is not necessarily problematic but annoying because now the whole thing is out of order and the pages aren't numbered, the doctor looked down at the pages and said, "Mmm. Parasomnia."
They continued to chat. I said, "There is another one [document] coming about the same size as that one."
The doctor looked at me and said, "Do you know Dr. ____?"
As my mouth was forming the shape to say No, the secretary interrupted and said, "I do, and I used to send you dictations all the time. All the time actually."
He turned back to me and said, "I'm wondering if you know Dr. ____. There was someone working with him who has a Western European accent, which I believe I hear [knowing wink], and she looked a lot like you. Belgian?" he asked.
"No," I said. "That's funny, though. People often think I have an accent. I'm from Illinois actually. Central Illinois."
"Oh," he said. "Well, now I know what a Central Illinois accent sounds like."
"Well," I countered, "I don't talk like people from Central Illinois. I don't know how it happened, but I talk differently than everyone in my family."
"Black sheep," the secretary suggested.
"Of the whole state," I added.
The doctor said, "As a Lansing, Michigan resident, I can tell you that isn't a Midwestern accent."
Then the secretary asked me how my brother is, if he'd been shipped overseas.
Where did that come from? And what lack of tact. What if he had been "shipped out". My brother is a newbie in the nuclear program of the Navy, which I'd told her months ago.
This scene is representative of two recurrencies:
1. People who are insecure and need to draw attention to themselves no matter how flimsy the marionette strings.
2. People consistently ask me what country I'm from because of the way I look or speak. Most of the time the guess is France. Belgium is new. This trend fascinates me and I love it.
1 Comments:
That secretary sounds like a tough one to stomach. Do you speak any French cuz that could be an entertaining ongoing (is there a hyphen there? That looks more like ongo-ing) gag for you. I always get asked what country I'm from and they won't take USA as an answer!
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