chatterbox71
Active member
I thought this thread could serve as a show-and-tell space of daily personal encounters with people who are strange and likely part of the reason we are all congregating on SocialPhobiaWorld.com.
Hopefully, we can try to find some humor in most of these encounters--but at the very least, this space can offer a means to get the experience off one's chest and possibly also get some moral support from fellow members. I know I can dwell on irksome exchanges so it's good to acknowledge the situation and then be done with it!
I'll start it off with a WTF? encounter at work today:
I'm working reception, at a front desk. A woman comes in, fills out a form so we can look her up in the database and provide her with services she needs. Suddenly--and melodramatically, she hands me the form in an exasperated THRUST of her arm. I take the form, for some reason thanking her for it--and she proceeds to THRUST into my face the pencil she'd been using, asking in an annoyed voice, "Can I sharpen this?" She has the look of a fallen Hollywood movie star, wearing sunglasses inside a windowless room, and possibly used to having an assistant at her beck and call. I can't tell you where I work, but I can tell you that there is absolutely no reason to feel you are above others where I work!
I looked to my right, spied an electric pencil sharpener (far from where the counter/she is), and said, "I can sharpen it for you," gently taking it from her, and thinking she will be satisfied. "WELL. USUALLY when I come here, I sharpen the pencils! USUALLY, this is NOT an ISSUE!" Ummmmmmm, what?
I work this shift all the time and have NEVER seen this woman. She is not backing off, I've got others' forms to process, so I just put the pencil sharpener up on the counter so she can use it. She proceeds to sharpen EVERY SINGLE PENCIL in two jars we have on the counter. This likely amounts to about FIFTY pencils--maybe more. She notes that she likes the smell of a newly sharpened pencil at one point, at a pause in a 5-to-10-minute duration of INCESSANT BUZZING NOISE.
Next!
Hopefully, we can try to find some humor in most of these encounters--but at the very least, this space can offer a means to get the experience off one's chest and possibly also get some moral support from fellow members. I know I can dwell on irksome exchanges so it's good to acknowledge the situation and then be done with it!
I'll start it off with a WTF? encounter at work today:
I'm working reception, at a front desk. A woman comes in, fills out a form so we can look her up in the database and provide her with services she needs. Suddenly--and melodramatically, she hands me the form in an exasperated THRUST of her arm. I take the form, for some reason thanking her for it--and she proceeds to THRUST into my face the pencil she'd been using, asking in an annoyed voice, "Can I sharpen this?" She has the look of a fallen Hollywood movie star, wearing sunglasses inside a windowless room, and possibly used to having an assistant at her beck and call. I can't tell you where I work, but I can tell you that there is absolutely no reason to feel you are above others where I work!
I looked to my right, spied an electric pencil sharpener (far from where the counter/she is), and said, "I can sharpen it for you," gently taking it from her, and thinking she will be satisfied. "WELL. USUALLY when I come here, I sharpen the pencils! USUALLY, this is NOT an ISSUE!" Ummmmmmm, what?
I work this shift all the time and have NEVER seen this woman. She is not backing off, I've got others' forms to process, so I just put the pencil sharpener up on the counter so she can use it. She proceeds to sharpen EVERY SINGLE PENCIL in two jars we have on the counter. This likely amounts to about FIFTY pencils--maybe more. She notes that she likes the smell of a newly sharpened pencil at one point, at a pause in a 5-to-10-minute duration of INCESSANT BUZZING NOISE.
Next!
