A few years ago I was talking to a woman I had just met at a friend's party. She asked me what I did for a living. I told her my husband and I had a furniture refinishing business. "Oh...can you make a living at that?" she asked. Not only did I think that was a really rude question....I thought it was a really stupid question. Maybe I should have said "No, this is my hobby. I really make my money as a prostitute." Or...."No, this is just my cover. I'm really a major drug dealer". Or...."No, I only do this because I don't make enough money at my real job....selling Happy Meals at McDonald's for minimum wage."
I guess maybe I didn't make my job sound exciting enough. I know people who can talk about eating a sandwich and make it sound like a thrilling adventure. But my mother taught me that it's not nice to brag about myself to people. I guess mom was not always right!
After my encounter with the woman at the party, my husband and I decided we would make up an occupation for the next time we met someone new. He was going to be a Motivational Speaker, loosely based on a Chris Farley character on SNL. He practiced his spiel with some friends and was so convincing that one friend almost hired him until her husband said "It's just pretend". Then one day we found out that a real motivational speaker moved into our neighborhood, so he nixed that idea.
OK, now what? We hadn't met anybody new who would be rude enough to ask "Can you make a living at that?", so we forgot about it for awhile.
Then one day on the golf course, we were playing with a couple of guys we did not know. They were in the hi-tech industry and asked what we did for a living.
"I'm a doctor" I said.
"Really?" one asked, looking interested, and sidling up next to me.
"Yeah, I'm a furniture doctor. I fix furniture" I replied.
"Heh, heh.......", then off they went down the fairway, looking for their drives.
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well, your hubby was a motivational speaker at one time. he was a gym teacher for crying out loud, same diff, no?
ReplyDeletehe would be a GREAT motivational speaker!
ReplyDeleteHey..this post was supposed to be about ME!
ReplyDeleteYou are a GREAT Doctor and definitly NOT boring!
ReplyDelete(How's that?)
That's better. Thank you very much!
ReplyDelete"Oh, can you make a living at that?"
ReplyDeleteI dunno, you were there so you know the context but she could have been thinking that furniture refinishing is a do it yourslelf type thing and never considered that there is sufficient demand to hire someone such that one could earn a living doing it. Ignorant perhaps, but rude?
IMO, if you want to elicit interest in your vocation- tell them that you are a stripper :D
uhhhhh......I think I'll just ignore what you said about it being a do it yourself type thing.....cuz maybe a lot of professions can be 'a do it yourself thing'....like hairdressing, web-design, cooking, housepainting, home decorating, landscaping, auto repair, sewing........
ReplyDeleteBTW husband's used the male stripper line before.