I've been complimented in round-about-ways the past couple of months and despite the fact that the compliments make me want to stand on my tip-toes and say emphatically, "But I'm a big girl!" I also realize that when I'm 85 years old (or even 40) I'll be paying money for these compliments.
As I've made myself more accessible to the town by attending various organizations board meetings, the board president usually squints at me over his/her spectacles and asks, "Are you covering this meeting for a class?"
I used to respond in a way that would make them feel less like an idiot when they realized my real occupation but now I don't care about that anymore.
It happened again last week at a meeting and the woman who knows everything about everything made an assumption that I was there covering the meeting for a class at the local university. The evil side of me didn't waste any time in shooting the following words out of my mouth: "No, I'm the bureau chief of the Sun-News." She looked slightly stunned as she stuttered out something about it being great and how glad they were to have me and I slightly smiled inside.
This morning I went to Wal-Mart and picked out paint my office and bathroom, the trim and enough for a second coat in the living room and bedroom. At the checkout, my checker-outer-lady said, "What are you painting?"
"My house," I replied cheerily.
"Your..." she trailed off. "I thought you were a student."
"No," I said. "I work at the Sun-News."
"Oh."
So those are my thoughts tonight at 5 as I sit here waiting for 7 to come so the polls will close and I can go wait for the results to be counted.
2 comments:
I hate not being taken seriously because of my youth. Last night as I was covering one of the local candidates, I had a lady come up to me and my fellow reporter and tell how great it was to see young people involved and how great it was that we were women working in a man's world. I suppose it was sweet, but there was a part of me that wanted to punch her in the face a little bit.
Yeah, people kept asking me when I graduate and where I go to school and "good luck with your career." Oh well...it is what it is
and i feel the same way about the election results...
I get that all the time -- in D.C. and here. The worst part about working at the coffee shop is that everyone assumes that no one with a college education and a PURPOSE in life could possibly work at a coffee house. So they put money in the tip jar and say "this is for college," and I say "thanks, but I graduated college 4 years ago. I moved here to be with my husband, who is stationed at Fort Lewis. Until then I was a journalist. In Washington D.C. Covering Congress."
Take that.
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