Today I called the family doctor to make an appointment for one of my children. My statement “Hi this is Sandra Tayler” was met by the receptionist brightening her voice and saying “Oh Hi!” like I’m a friend she hasn’t seen for awhile. I’m trying to decide if this is a good thing.
On one hand it is definitely nice to feel like the people at the doctor’s office actually care who you are. It is nice to know all their names and have them know yours even when they aren’t staring at the appointment screen.
On the other hand it means I’ve actually been in the office frequently enough for them to recoginize me both by name and by sight and to know the names of all of my children without having to look them up.
The gripping hand is that I’ve been going to this same doctor for more than 6 years, the staff there has been pretty constant in all that time, and I was one of the practice’s first patients. This means it makes SENSE for them to feel like I’m an old friend. In a way, I am.
While all of the foregoing thought does manage to make me feel better about knowing the people in the doctor’s office so well, it completely fails to make me happy that I’m having to take a child to the doctor AGAIN.
To help with your kids and your stocks
And the odd biological blocks
The folks you can tell
(and should know you quite well)
Are your lawyers, accountants and docs.
Do not fret that they’re hip to your name
And your family’s hat-tip to fame
For the things in their files
Help in bringing back smiles
While less-knowing folks might just bring blame.
===|==============/ Level Head
The Gripping hand
I Salute you Sci Fi knowledge, by Horace Hussein Bury you are truly a scholar.
Re: The Gripping hand
Yeah, I was just thinking, “Gripping Hand? My God but Howard’s a lucky guy.”
Luck?
Luck had little to do with it beyond our first chance meeting. We talked on our first date and learned that we both grew up feeling like celebrities had truly “arrived” when they got to be on The Muppet Show.
In subsequent dates we talked about all kinds of things, including Science Fiction and Fantasy. We shared a lot of common interests, but not a whole lot of common literature — she had a formal Humanities education, and had read many more of what society considers “the classics,” while I was self-educated in the SF&F stacks, and had read many more of what you guys consider “the classics.”
After getting married (just 280 days later) , Sandra began making her way through my collection of books. Naturally I pointed out all the best ones first.
So while on one hand you can point to that first chance meeting and say it was luck, you can, on the other hand, say with assurety that both of us were looking for someone with common literary interests, and were bound to make that kind of chance connection eventually.
On the gripping hand, we’re both smart, sexy people, and I figure the Universe lacks the intestinal fortitude to try and keep us apart.
Re: The Gripping hand
Wow. I thought the exact same thing the moment I read the words “On the gripping hand”. Most excellent. 🙂