So all my life I've been fighting one of the most difficult battles in all the world: keeping people I just meet from calling me Caroline. Carolyn, I know, is close to Caroline but at the same time so different. The "lyn" adds a bit of Arthurian flair to it, makes it more graceful, more soft, more awesome. The "LINE" at the end of She-who-should-not-be-named name is harsh and recalls a more rustic kind of attitude and lifestyle. Even Neil Diamond had to add an adjective to soften the name for the title of his song "Sweet Caroilne."
Anyway, I make sure that people know my name is NOT Caroline and can get very touchy about it very fast. So I of all people should understand the plight of someone with a unique, atypical name. Taking this receptionist job has meant that I butcher names left and right. Marks become Mikes and Jens become Janeanes and I end up looking like an ass. I'm so sorry other person on the phone, but I can't hear you! Speak up and speak clearly! I don't know you, I've never met you and I'm sure if I did we'd be best friends forever. But it's just this short mini conversation we can have over and over again if you're not eloquent!
Me: Good Morning Our Company's Name!
Person with cottonballs in their mouth: So and so please.
ME: Who can I say is calling?
Person who managed to put more cottonballs in their mouth in the meantime: It's sjleon.
Me: I'm sorry who?
Person:Sjleon.
Me: I'm so sorry I'm having trouble hearing you. What did you say?
(this is the point where some people have hung up on me)
Person: SEAN.
Me: Ahem. Sorry. Where are you calling from?
Person: Bezzex.
Me: Bezzex?
Person. NO, Bezzex.
Me: Sean from Bezzex.
Person: Bus i ness X.
Me: Thank you hold on one moment.
Granted this has gotten easier over the past week as I begin to recognize the same people calling over and over. Except for the Myserious Brother. Someone kept calling for one of the partners here and I kept thinking they were saying it was their brother. Turns out his name is Butter. And turns out that I've been getting his name wrong since I've been here. And he came in today and introduced himself. Very nice guy and I couldn't have apologized more. We had a short conversation and I think I apologized for butchering his name eleven or twelve more times throughout.
I felt sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad. And I thought I'd been championing all my life against Caroline. To think what this guy's had to go through.
Just goes to show, don't judge a person by their phone conversations.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Fairy God-Hypothesis
Hypothesis: Moving to New York will bring more opportunity to learn about and work in the film and television industry, give me more inspiration and encouragement to write and be read.
When I was little I used to believe in very different kinds of things than I do today. I believed that fairies lived in my backyard. I believed that my parents knew everything in the world that there was to know. I believed that Santa Claus brought me presents every December. I believed that if I ran fast enough I could hold my arms out and fly. I believed that every night as lay me down to sleep if I prayed hard enough and for the right reasons God would answer, that He had a special angel whose mission was to watch over me (this sparked a whole series of late-night imagined skits between my straight-laced guardian angel and kooky fairy godmother).
On second thought, I don't know that things have changed all that much. I still believe ridiculous implausible things are possible. Becoming a writer. Becoming a credible television critic. Becoming a real non-student person. Earning a decent living. One day having time and money enough to cook all the recipes I want to try. Pay my parents back. Being someone who regularly exercises. Afford an iPhone. Read for pleasure all the time. Be able to walk in heels for more than two minutes. Get married. Raise a family. Speak french. Live in France. EGOT. Donate a million dollars to Cucalorus. The dreams kind of spiral into insanity from there (including buying Rolling Rock and moving it back to Latrobe, being on SNL, being US ambassador to France and inventing the best dessert since the chocolate chip cookie).
But I think some famous smart people have said things about how the idea has to come before the reality, the concept comes before the result and the hypothesis before the experiment. But I kind of think of all those dreams, goals, ambitions or desires were really the hypothesis to my life after graduation. I was a Film Studies major so I'm a bit rusty on the steps to the scientific method. But if memory serves me correctly then the next part is the methods or plan of attack. And that's where New York comes in.
There were a lot of reasons for me to stay in Wilmington. Friends, family, a network of people I knew and loved and worked with and studied with, and the big one: Cucalorus. It was a hard decision. But the more I thought about it the more it became clear. I'll always miss Wilmington, but like a good friend of mine said,"You can always come back." And I will come back, whether it be to visit or because I never made it here or to retire and start my chocolate mousse popsicle sandwich business.
But I had certain predictions for myself in Wilmington or at my parent's house. I would become frustrated, lazy, mean and less and less likely to actually pursue new opportunities. So to cut a long research process of this scientific inquiry short, I decided to move to New York as soon as possible.
Almost two weeks ago I shoved as much of my stuff as possible into two enormous suitcases, lugged them and my very sleepy family to the airport and said a teary temporary goodbye to my family, Cary, and Wilmington. Thus began the great New York Experiment. I know that all my beliefs will evolve and change like they did between age 5 and age 21. I know there's a great possibility of coming here and falling flat on my face, hating it here or never getting my foot in the door. I know, too, that the possibility of failure is even greater if I never put those beliefs to the test. You can't hit a target without aiming and firing and (to keep up with the whole science theme) you can't get results without a hypothesis and an experiment.
So this bloggity blog blog blog is to record, document and detail the different experiences, successes and failures alike, that I encounter here. So far the first two weeks have brought endless hours of job-hunting, two interviews, expensive groceries, 39 cent yogurt, great old friends from high school, new ones from down the hall, a couple of great film screenings, new love of the institution of brunch, a growing understanding of the metromaze, viewing all five seasons of weeds, a free espresso machine, and a new library card!
Details of those exploits in posts to come.
P.S.
(I still may or may not believe that if I run fast enough I can hold my arms out and fly.)
When I was little I used to believe in very different kinds of things than I do today. I believed that fairies lived in my backyard. I believed that my parents knew everything in the world that there was to know. I believed that Santa Claus brought me presents every December. I believed that if I ran fast enough I could hold my arms out and fly. I believed that every night as lay me down to sleep if I prayed hard enough and for the right reasons God would answer, that He had a special angel whose mission was to watch over me (this sparked a whole series of late-night imagined skits between my straight-laced guardian angel and kooky fairy godmother).
On second thought, I don't know that things have changed all that much. I still believe ridiculous implausible things are possible. Becoming a writer. Becoming a credible television critic. Becoming a real non-student person. Earning a decent living. One day having time and money enough to cook all the recipes I want to try. Pay my parents back. Being someone who regularly exercises. Afford an iPhone. Read for pleasure all the time. Be able to walk in heels for more than two minutes. Get married. Raise a family. Speak french. Live in France. EGOT. Donate a million dollars to Cucalorus. The dreams kind of spiral into insanity from there (including buying Rolling Rock and moving it back to Latrobe, being on SNL, being US ambassador to France and inventing the best dessert since the chocolate chip cookie).
But I think some famous smart people have said things about how the idea has to come before the reality, the concept comes before the result and the hypothesis before the experiment. But I kind of think of all those dreams, goals, ambitions or desires were really the hypothesis to my life after graduation. I was a Film Studies major so I'm a bit rusty on the steps to the scientific method. But if memory serves me correctly then the next part is the methods or plan of attack. And that's where New York comes in.
There were a lot of reasons for me to stay in Wilmington. Friends, family, a network of people I knew and loved and worked with and studied with, and the big one: Cucalorus. It was a hard decision. But the more I thought about it the more it became clear. I'll always miss Wilmington, but like a good friend of mine said,"You can always come back." And I will come back, whether it be to visit or because I never made it here or to retire and start my chocolate mousse popsicle sandwich business.
But I had certain predictions for myself in Wilmington or at my parent's house. I would become frustrated, lazy, mean and less and less likely to actually pursue new opportunities. So to cut a long research process of this scientific inquiry short, I decided to move to New York as soon as possible.
Almost two weeks ago I shoved as much of my stuff as possible into two enormous suitcases, lugged them and my very sleepy family to the airport and said a teary temporary goodbye to my family, Cary, and Wilmington. Thus began the great New York Experiment. I know that all my beliefs will evolve and change like they did between age 5 and age 21. I know there's a great possibility of coming here and falling flat on my face, hating it here or never getting my foot in the door. I know, too, that the possibility of failure is even greater if I never put those beliefs to the test. You can't hit a target without aiming and firing and (to keep up with the whole science theme) you can't get results without a hypothesis and an experiment.
So this bloggity blog blog blog is to record, document and detail the different experiences, successes and failures alike, that I encounter here. So far the first two weeks have brought endless hours of job-hunting, two interviews, expensive groceries, 39 cent yogurt, great old friends from high school, new ones from down the hall, a couple of great film screenings, new love of the institution of brunch, a growing understanding of the metromaze, viewing all five seasons of weeds, a free espresso machine, and a new library card!
Details of those exploits in posts to come.
P.S.
(I still may or may not believe that if I run fast enough I can hold my arms out and fly.)
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