I got a bit of a reality check and a slap upside the head this morning. Someone had made a comment that I had blown them off and looked down my nose at them when they introduced themselves to me last year at the Southern Comfort Conference. Since I’ve never looked down my nose at anyone in my life, I had thought that they were kidding and just teasing, and so I had replied with something flippant and sarcastic. Well this morning I received a message from them making it quite clear that they were not kidding or teasing, and quite honestly felt that I had acted like a snob. What a concept! Me, the dirt poor, trailer park trash, desert rat being a snob. I sat there in the airport gate area reading this message and my heart kind of sank at the thought that I had actually hurt someone. That was their first time out, they had tried to talk to me, and I had apparently blown them off and in some way implied that they were not worthy of my time.
I had literally had a hundred or more people stop me to talk to me and so would have to be honest that I don’t recall this meeting. Actually that would be my one and only excuse for my behavior – I was fairly overwhelmed while I was there. As a result of my forum posts about traveling, my blog, and the hundreds of people that I have met in my travels, I literally had dozens of people stopping me every few feet.
“Hey, I know you . . .”
“I read your blog . . . “
“Aren’t you Kim from Texas?”
“We are on the same forum . . . “
“Don’t you recognize me? I’m one of your facebook friends . . . “
Anyone that knows me will tell you that I have an exceptionally bad memory, but I’m pretty sure that even those with the best of memories can’t recall close to a thousand facebook and Myspace friends, and several thousand active forum members. I guess that I did reach the point where I just smiled and said “Hi, glad to meet you”, and then returned to what ever I was doing or who ever I was talking to. Looking back on it, I would have to agree that I was probably thoughtless and inconsiderate, perhaps even to the point of being unintentionally rude. If YOU were one of the people that I apparently snubbed when I grew overwhelmed, I really am so sorry, and I’m not trying to be sarcastic this time. Having said that, and if it’s all the same to you, if you wanna slam me, would you mind calling me a thoughtless and rude bitch rather than a snob? I HATE snobs . . .
Now watch, the next time I go to SCC, everyone will avoid me like the plague. After all, we wouldn’t want to overwhelm the arrogant and snobby bitch, would we?!
I thought I was going to have at least a week in my office, but at around lunch time yesterday I got a call from a good customer of ours in Detroit. They have a lot of our Infrared Mass Specs, and a few months ago they put three of them in an environment that was much too hot for them, and the thermal expansion shifted the alignment of some of the optics. These things can be very temperamental when the alignment is not perfect and they are now running in to problems. I’ve made it clear that they really need to be returned to the factory where they can be aligned properly, but they are desperate to get at least one of them running in a hurry, and so off I go!
It’s funny the way that different people react to people like me. On the flight from Austin to Chicago, the two flight attendants were pushing the beverage cart down the isle. The tall blonde took one look at me and frowned like she had just sucked on a lemon. The other flight attendant grinned from ear to ear and chatted with me off and on through out the flight. The flight was half empty so she had time on her hands. She told me how much she liked my new butterfly bracelet and so I told her I got it at the Austin airport for only $15. Then she showed me a crochet key chain she was making. It seems that crocheting is her diet plan, as she said it was either that or eating. Then in the Chicago airport I stopped for a peanut smoothie and the guy behind the counter was falling all over himself, grinning from ear to ear, and offering me samples. Clearly he was tickled to death for some reason.
Arrrrrggghhhh . . . I can’t stop dwelling on the fact that someone thinks that I am a snob! Now I have to wonder if I am and just don’t know it? After all, it seems likely that a snob would be the last person to know that they’re a snob, now doesn’t it?
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