For checking in appointments, my doctor’s office staff first asks for your birthday (American style).
Receptionist: “Birth date?”
Me: “Ten, twenty-eight, sixty-four.”
Receptionist: “Nineteen sixty-four?”
Me: *Thinking* “No, 1864. I’m 158 years old.”
Me: *Speaking* “Yes, 1964…”
I work in the self-checkout of a retail store. I like working evenings as then I have time to talk to customers. I really enjoy talking to the kids and one night, around 8 PM, a woman and her seven-or-eight-year-old son come in.]
He’s doing that kid thing where they pull their arms into their t-shirt and pretend they don’t have arms.
Me: *Jokingly.* “It looks like your arms fell off! I saw a pair on the floor in aisle five.”
I know it’s a dumb joke, but I am a dad.
This young man looks me dead in the eye and says in a gruff voice:
Child: “I lost them in the war!”
It was so perfect. I thought I was going to hurt myself laughing so hard. When I got myself under control, the mother looks at me:
Mother: “He’s always like this.”
I really hope they come back. I can’t wait to see what else he has to say.
I am out to a movie with my friends. We go and sit down, and I realize pretty soon that this girl in the row behind us has her feet up on [Friend]’s seat. She’s there with one of her friends. [Friend] turns around.
Friend: “Uh, do you think you could put your feet down?”
And I think they say something in response, but I don’t hear it. The feet don’t go down. A few minutes later…
Friend: “Hey, will you get your feet off my chair? It’s extremely rude.”
And they still don’t budge.
I tell [Friend] that he should go find an employee and get them to talk to this girl. He does exactly that, and after a couple of minutes, an employee comes and talks to this girl. She is obviously pretty peeved but begrudgingly agrees to put her feet down.
After the employee leaves, she puts her feet right back up.
At this point, I’m pissed off. Why is it so important to you that you have your feet up on someone’s chair? You’re just being a brat.
So, I get out of my seat, walk up two rows, and sit down in the seat directly behind this girl. I stick my feet on the back of her chair and push it forward. Both girls turn around and try to say something to me, but I can’t really hear them since the movie has started by this point.
Me: “Just watch the movie.”
I kept my feet up there the entire movie. It felt like I had done wall sits for two hours, but I’m glad I did it.
I was diagnosed with a hearing disorder when I was a child. This hearing disorder makes it difficult for me to understand conversations, and it’s getting to the point where I’m considering a hearing aid.
A client wanted a phone conference. My policy is to use video conferences — body language and lip reading are possible, at least, plus Skype allows texting during the call — or instant messaging/email. That way, I understand exactly what my clients want, and both of us can send screenshots, examples, etc.
Client: “I can’t video message. Let’s call.”
Me: “I explained to you earlier that that would be hard for me. Would you prefer emailing?”
Client: “Calling.”
Me: “Why wouldn’t email work?”
Client: “No.”
Me: “I hope you understand that it would be difficult for me to understand you.”
Client: “Work it out.”
We were installing an electrical wire system for security, and we had a boss (also from a previous work, yes, I worked for him at a different company too).
He has a tendency to show your faults constantly, I am at the point of getting used to it.
This one time he was calling us for not being careful enough with the installations, and the moment he said: “You should be as careful as me” he zapped himself up.
He was okay and was not hurt in any way, but we got a good laugh. I admit that at first, we had our issues but I am glad I worked with him, I have my good memories and learned a lot of him.
