Halloween Homonym

Homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Today is Halloween and each year I love to see what my grandchildren will be dressed as. I will not know what my granddaughter will wear until I am surprised with the pictures. Yesterday I found out what my grandson will wear. This year he will be a Minion. A minion is a yellow creature with one or two eyes. The character became popular in the movie "Despicable Me". My son and daughter in law will also be wearing Minion tee shirts. My husband asked me what my grandson will be dressed as and I said a Minion. He looked at me with an odd look. A minyan? Why would he be dressed as a person in a prayer group? I started to laugh. He will be a Minion, not a person in a minyan. When minion is spelled like "minyan", it means that a person is part of a ten person group of Jewish adults that is required for certain religious prayers. I am sure that no one else confused the two. I am still laughing about it.

Fully Equipped

When cars were manufactured years ago the advertisements said that they were fully equipped. Whatever options were made were put into the car. As prices got higher the ads changed. You got a few extras but not all. If you wanted more you had to purchase them. The wording of the ads changed to nicely equipped. Most people did not notice the wording change. Things that were taken for granted were now missing. Even if we did not use all of them. There is a point to why I am writing this. I was driving to work yesterday when I noticed that the person in the car ahead of me had their hand out of the window, smoking a cigarette. When they were done, they tossed the butt out of the window and it came flying towards me. I thought to myself how inconsiderate they were. Why couldn't they just put it out in the ashtray? Then I realized that cars no longer have ashtrays. Where are smoker's supposed to throw their butts? I guess out the window.

Hierarchy

Life is fill of hierarchies. Levels of importance. What comes first. Who comes first. I realized yesterday that simple things like call waiting have a hierarchy. When we are talking to someone and another call beeps in, we have to make the decision of who is more important on the call chain. Last night I was talking to my son on his way home from work. I had not really talked to him in a day. My parents beeped in. Since I wanted my son's attention, I ignored the beep. I knew I could call my parents back in five minutes but if I got off the phone with my son, he would not have time to continue the call later. After a minute of talking to my son, his brother beeped into his phone. Within a split second I was rushed off the line, so he could talk to his brother. My son was first on my hierarchy, but I was second on his. That is exactly how I would have wanted it.

Passing it On

Two weeks ago one of the doctors I work with came in with a cold. A few days later another one got it. Last week I was the new recipient. As we all know, sick days are to be used for fun and not illness. As long as we can make our way to work, we will go in to avoid losing a day off. I went to work on Thursday and tried to keep away from people. Germs are airborne so it probably did not matter. Yesterday morning my receptionist came in sniffling. She said she got "my cold". I said it wasn't "my cold". It was Loren's, then Christine's, then mine. She got nasty and said, "No one should come to work sick and spread their germs to everyone!" I looked her in the eye and said, "But you're here today, aren't you?" She thought for a moment and slowly walked out of the room.

Flipping The Switch

We all have our triggers. Some are tighter than others. Some people call it a trigger. Some people call it pushing their buttons. I like to refer to it as flipping the switch. It could be a word, a look, an action or even an object. It is the thing that turns us from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. I am rarely bothered by anything at work. It is my job, not my life, so I take things in stride. I always say that if you do not have my last name or my blood running through your veins, I won't get upset by you. I try to teach this to my staff. Don't let a patient upset you. Don't yell or be nasty. Just do your job in a calm way. At the end of the day, nothing in work is so important.

Baby Shoes

Yesterday we continued to clean out our basement. We opened up the window seat boxes that contained years of memories. Things that were stored there thirty years ago and forgotten about. We removed everything and started to sort things out. I found my children's baby shoes. Their first walking shoes. They were safely placed in their original Stride Rite boxes. I never bronzed them like other people did, but I kept them as keepsakes. I then realized that babies do not get traditional "first shoes" anymore. There is no trip to Stride Rite where the baby sits on your lap and an old man ties the shoes onto their feet and pinches the toes to make sure they fit well. Moms today go into their favorite children's' store and buy various stylish shoes. By the time my grandchildren were one year old they had more shoes than I did. I placed the baby shoes back in the box and put them in my closet. I will never lose them again.

Flash Of Doom

For some reason, I always pick the wrong cashier's line. It looks like the shortest line until I get on it. It then stops as the other lines move quickly. If you ever see me on a line in a store, go the other way. Yesterday at Walmart, I got on a short line. After a few minutes I realized that I never moved an inch since I got on. I waited and waited. Then I looked to see if there was a cashier at the end. She was there, but her hands were at her side. Then it happened. The flash of doom. The number on top of the line was blinking. 16,16,16,16. My heart sank. This could not be happening. Now I have to make a decision to leave this line or wait it out. Either way I will be making the wrong choice. I decided to pick up an US magazine and read about the Kardashians. That entertained me until the light was turned off and things started moving. Finally after 20 minutes I was done. All that for 2 cans of corn.