Wow, this anecdote really illustrates how our insecurities get to us and lie to us!
At Safeway, the cashiers are instructed to 1) Ask you if you need help out (with your groceries) and 2) Thank you and address you by your last name Mr or Mrs____________________ They have your name on the receipt from your Club Card.
Inexplicably, time and time again, Asian cashiers, even after they called me ma'am would say (I thought) Thank you, MISTER Anderson!
I always thought it was my voice or they were just responding to me relatively giagantic )to them) height.
I digress, since I got back from Thailand, my new boobs and the way people reacted to me there, madam, madam, madam, you are beautiful and all that and since I have improved my voice, I feel that my passability has reached the 99.9 percentile (there is no 100 but that is another topic)
So, yesterday, I am in Safeway,the clerk is very pleasant, calls me ma'am, we even chat a little, amazingly, she closes with "Thank you Mister Anderson!" So, just, for fun, I say actually no it's MISS Anderson. I am NOT married. She repeats Yes, Mister Anderson.
So I finally get it, she can't say Miss Andersoin without it sounding like MISTER! Just to confirm, I asked her to say the words Miss ANderson slowly. Amazingly, it still sound like Mister Anderson. I laughed all the way home. To think of all the times, I heard that and walked out of the store sulking, to realize they were saying Miss Anderson all the time. WOW, there is a lesson to be learned there.
Funny that with the last name Anderson Miss and Mister often get slurred, I suspected that all the time but my stupid insecurity and my placing such importance on it (like it really matters what a Safeway clerk thinks of us anyway!) caused me all this grief. Un-f***ing-real!
