What Did You Say?

I'm going to tell you an embarrassing secret. Well, it's not SO secret. Like, lots of strangers have been learning this secret firsthand for the past ten days or so. Well, okay, it's not really a secret. But it DOES embarrass me. Ready?

I have, um, how shall I say? "Spotty" hearing. I don't mean that I'm deaf, no, not at all. I can hear quiet sounds just fine! And I'm not talking about selective hearing; everybody has that. What I mean is, when people speak, I often have trouble understanding exactly what they say. I either hear a bunch of unintelligible sounds or I hear them say something different entirely. This is not a new problem! I've had it for as long as I can remember. It happens a lot in everyday conversations but when it comes to song lyrics, whispering, and especially people talking on the other end of a telephone call, I am really in trouble. Plus, all these things are compounded under stressful situations.

Don't know what I mean? For example, someone might tell me, "Please close the drawer" and I'll open the door. Until I was about sixteen, I honestly and truly believed the Von Trapp father from "Sound of Music" was, indeed, named Gaeogg. It never even occurred to me that their European accents would make the name "Georg" sound like that.

When I was younger, I, like so many, watched the 1970's musical "Grease" and sang along with the catchy classic songs like "Summer Nights" and "You're The One That I Want". It wasn't til my mom laughed at me when she heard me singing "Greased Lightnin" and corrected me that I realized I was singing the lyrics completely incorrectly. For the record, the correct lyrics are:

"Go, Greased Lightnin', you're burnin' up the quarter mile!
Greased Lighnin', Go Greased Lightnin'!" along with choreography of the Grease cast moving their arms horizontally across and then up and down, I guess signifying watching the car race across the screen or whatever.

I know that now. However, at the time, I thought they were singing:

"Go, Greased Lightnin', you're burnin' up the 409!
Greased Lightnin', Go Greased Lightnin'"!  and I thought the hand movements signified them using the kitchen cleanser to wipe the greasy mess away!

Shut up.

Here is a link to a video of the song:

http://youtu.be/wK63eUyk-iM

Watch the video and during that part, can't you imagine the cast of Grease was using 409 to wipe up various greasy kitchen surfaces?

This problem of mine has really come to light recently because last Monday, I started a new job. As I stated in a previous blog, I've been working in the ACE Greenhouse but our greenhouse season is now over and I was out of a job! So, I started working the Rental counter inside the store. I've worked in and around the ACE store for a very long time, but only doing things like greenhouse, making bin tag labels, checking inventory, ordering, mowing the back lot, etc. Never have I worked at the counter! You would think that working the cash register inside the store wouldn't be that different from doing it in the greenhouse, but you would be wrong.

Not only is the cash register much more complex, but I also had to learn to run credit and debit cards, endorse checks, do returns, answer phones, transfer calls and.... do rental forms!

Rental forms are competed by taking the renter's information like name/name of business, phone number, equipment name and information, etc. These make me really nervous because so far I'm not good at them at all and I don't completely understand how to do them correctly.

Anyway, this afternoon, a man came in to rent some equipment. My coworker, Rich, has been helping me learn to fill out the forms and  he knew the man and had me work on the form as they chatted nearby. For whatever reason, no matter how many times the man told me his business's name, I couldn't quite catch it. I felt awkward after asking him to repeat it several times so I filled out the form with what I had heard.

After a minute, the customer leaned over to scan what I had written. I knew it was bad when he did a double take and pulled the form towards him.
"Girl!" he exclaimed. "It is ANDREW's Plumbing, not ANGIE's!!" Then he began to laugh and snort and so did Rich.
"Oh, my god," I said, hanging my head, ashamed.
"It's okay," he chuckled. "Just, please change it."

Towards the end of my day, a man came up to the counter with his merchandise. He took in my frazzled appearance and generally stressed-out demeanor. He smiled kindly. "You new?"
"Fine, thanks," I smiled back.
He raised his voice slightly and enunciated. "YOU NEW HERE?"
I turned pink. "Yeah. Very."
"Thought so."

And I am new. And I think I will get better and better. And as embarrassing as these things are when they happen, they do make good stories later...


Sarah