Timelies all!

Happy Birthday Laura!

I am home because someone spilled phenol in the lab, fairly close to my desk. He wiped up the spill, but the fumes remain. Safety and Fire Department people came by and claimed to have cleaned it up, but still: fumes. It was making my headache worse, so I took off.

" Hi Daisy how are you? Good. Good. Good. Y'all busy there today?" I mean it's this whole chit chat thing with someone who hasn't even told me his name yet, or said anything that would indicate a reason for the call or why he's being so familiar with me and OH MY GOD GET TO THE FUCKING POINT ALREADY!"

2 more aggravating things:

1) The person who just will NOT SHUT UP while you're trying to help them.

"Can you check on this PO for me?"

"Certainly, just a moment."

"Because I put it in yesterday."

"Uh-huh."

"I just wanted to make sure you got it."

"Okay, I'm just..."

"I really like your products..."

LISTEN, lady, I seriously DO NOT CARE. I want to answer your question and get you the FUCK off my phone. SHUT UP while I do that, kay?

2) "(Company Name), this Joe, how can I help you?"

"Hi. This is Marcia."

"Hi Marcia."

...

...

...

...

"Can I help you with something, Marcia?"

Like I'm supposed to know who the fuck "Marcia" is or something. "Oh, hi Marcia, I received your psychic plea for help through the aether and I'm not only looking up your PO right now, but I'm also arranging for you to finally experience a satisfying orgasm with your husband. Be just a sec."

your perception is biased when you really can't know for sure who is too embarrassed to talk about it

From what Connie says, it's not embarassing for him. From his delivery it didn't seem so to me. He seemed quite matter of fact, not as if he had to muster his bravery, or god forbid, was having an Oprah moment.

The roommate was presumably anonymous. I don't think it's about making fun of alcoholism; I think his problem is shaming people who are weakened by factors beyond their immediate control, like alcoholism.

Fair point. I didn't think that it was about making fun of alcholism--but the divide that you're harshing on people where *I* actually know who the person is (and they know millions of people know) is a clear divide.

Him not thinking ahead to meeting the people he gets laughs off of is just plain weird. It's not even like you should need to think ahead to meeting them. It's not about meeting them. It's about them existing and having feelings that may be affected by your work.

I do that thing on the phone. Sorry! But it's because I have massive, massive phone fear and it's enough that I'm on the phone talking to you and give me credit for trying to make social niceties with you because all I really want to do is blurt out what I need and have you do it! Ahem. Yes, you're still fine. I just have spastic responses, because I'm not typically the one who says first, how are you? Usually I'm the one that says, "Fine, and you?" Unless I'm on the phone, calling you.

Hee. I was aiming for funny and self-deprecating, and that came out all defensive and retaliatory, and I don't mean it that way!

I dunno about the celeb thing. IME, the celebs I know don't roll high enough to know the other celebs in other fields and to treat them all like other humans. They're not immune to the machine, they're just caught up in it in a higher gear than we are.

MM, your experience is precisely why I love the fact that I've been transferred from phones to chat support. A) I hate talking to strangers (I don't care if I'm good at it, I still hate it), B) too many people are idiots.

I'd read excerpts of his monologue, but that's the first time I heard the whole thing. I love him. I'm going to have to start TiVoing his show.

Rent Saving Grace--he's BRILLIANT in that.

Today's outing was going to get the oil changed. We stopped by for a snack pack of Timbits for a snack. I highly recommend that.

Connie, where do you work? I could do customer service if it was chat. I HATE the phones.

Hey babe? Check your email.

Speaking of customer calls, I have this embarrassing habit of completely blanking on customer names almost immediately after they tell me who they are. I have to write it down if I want to avoid the embarrassing, "And, uh... what name is your account under, again?"

Me: Brain, I know you don't give a shit about these people, but could you hold onto the info for at least two minutes before trashing it?
Brain: And overwrite all those Journey lyrics? NEVER.
Me: Fantastic. I'd be golden if only these people were named Wheelinthesky Keepsonturnin.

Yeah, I totally had that thing too. And then came the terriblehorriblenogood stretch where I was a temp secretary. To, like, the second biggest dude at a university. You better believe I learned how to remember names in a flash. And it's evidently a skill I've retained, even though I only now use it to startle customer service people I'm on hold for.