Don’t You Wish Your Boyfriend/Husband Is Perfect Like This? Dream On!

“You Sound Like Sarah Palin”. Oh Crap!

What do you do when someone gave you a compliment, but you don’t really like it? Do you tell them to fug off or thank them anyway? How do you get out from the ackward situation?

This morning, a patient called and ask about information for her daughter who will be traveling to Kenya, east Africa, at the end of this year. She’s asking about what vaccination is needed, the status of disease outbreaks, and whether or not the specific place her daughter would be flying into is considered as malaria-risk or not. After I answered those questions, she furthermore inquired the cost of the office call for the physician, and what’s the approximate pricing for each immunization needed. Satisfied with my answers, she laid out her final questions, which was about the validity of those injections. All in all, it was a lengthy 15 minutes conversation. I was glad that it’s going to be over as soon as she said, “Wow, OK. I got everything I needed to know. You’ve been very helpful. Thank you so much for your time.”

Not to be arogant, I got that a lot. I know the other receptionists think that it’s a bunch of wasted time. That they would prefer to direct patients to a certain website that could answer their question. Or to have the Travel Clinic nurse call them back to answer their question. I don’t know, maybe because I too like to travel, I find it exciting to look up information on different countries for patients. I like to hear the reason they’re traveling; mission trip, moving away, just vacationing, study abroad, exchange program, adopting, etc.

Anyway, back to my lady friend. As I thought she was done with me and said thank you, goodbye, and all that formality, before I could finish my sentence saying, “Have a good d…” she interrupted me.

“Oh ma’am? Or, Dai-nee, is it? I’m sorry, I just have to ask you this…”
“Oh, OK, sure…”
“The way you talk… has anybody ever made fun of you?”
Wtf? Is she making fun of my accent? It’s not uncommon to hear somebody refer to me as ’the receptionist who has an accent’. 
So I weakly said, “Yeah… I got that a lot. English is actually not my mother t…”
“No… no… the way you talk. You sound like Sarah Palin.”
Whaaa? Now, this isn’t even funny anymore. Did I really sound that dumb? I thought she was glad that I helped her a lot. Now she’s making fun of me? I don’t even know who this person is.
“Well…”
“You sound so sincere. You’re so confident and not afraid of who you are. God bless you.”
“Thank… you?”
Click.

Wow. What a cruel joke. Either she’s a truly Republican or a hardcore fan of Sarah Palin, or she’s just completely nuts. But honestly, I really don’t want to sound like her. Just hear here her. Ridiculous. I should start practicing talking like Yoda. “Listen to this video clip, you must.”

Forwarded Emails

Getting forwarded stuff in my  work email Inbox annoys me sometimes. Mostly jokes, then the rest could be some religious bull shit. First of all, don’t assume everyone is a Jesus person or even religious at all.

I do like the hilarious ones, though. After a long tiring morning (mostly Mondays), getting these kind of junk is refreshing. I have a fellow receptionist who works at a different department who’d come up with the most funny photos or jokes. I’m amazed on her ability to compile them and sending it regularly to a lot of people.

Every time I open my work Microsoft Outlook Inbox and notice the ones with ‘FW:‘ as the first part of the subject (for instance, FW: When Guidos Attack or FW: What Celebrities Would Look Like If They Moved to Oklahoma), I don’t read it from beginning to end. Then if it’s been forwarded too many times, it’d be ‘FW: FW: FW: FW:’ 

Instead, I just scroll down quickly, and once I catch a glimpse of something like this: ‘Pass this to 8 more people so you’ll be blessed today’  or even this ‘I better not hear of anyone breaking this email chain or see deleted’, that’d piss me off instantly and I’d delete it in a split second.

My most recent forwarded email was about bumper stickers, like these:

 

Impotence…
Nature’s way of saying “No hard feelings”

 

Everyone has a photographic memory
…some just don’t have any film.

Save your breath…
You’ll need it to blow up your date

I used to have a handle
on life…but it broke off.

WANTED: Meaningful
overnight relationship.

Guys…just because you have one,
doesn’t mean you have to be one.

Some people just don’t know how to drive…
I call these people “Everybody But Me”

Don’t like my driving?
Then quit watching me.

If you can read this…I can
slam on my brakes and sue you.

Some people are only alive because it is illegal to shoot them.

Try not to let your mind wander…
It is too small and fragile to be out by itself.

Hang up and drive!!

Welcome to America
…now speak English!

 

Ugh, I hated that last one!