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So I was making hold calls at the library, and on one, a woman picks up. "Hi, I'm calling from the library for James," I say, glancing at the hold slip. "Yes?" says she. I pause, awkwardly. "Errr-- we have a book that was requested," I say, making my inner editor wince at the stupid passive voice. "We'll hold it till the tenth, blah blah blah." Call over.
What threw me -- what always throws me -- is that if your voice is a decidedly feminine soprano, you're probably not James, so why are you answering like you are? Were it more likely I was speaking to James I'd say "we have the book you requested", or were I told "may I take a message?" I'd say "we have the book he requested". But I get that major huh?? moment when I have no clue either way.
You'd think I'd have done better than I did with nanowrimo with my just-demonstrated ability to wax loquacious about the most random and miniscule of subjects, huh?
And I always feel bad when I can't pronounce peoples' names. I've got one of those impossible last names myself and I'm never insulted when other people murder it, but I still feel strangely guilty when I manage to get every single short vowel long and vice versa, every hard consonant soft, and so forth. *shrugs* Yet another reason I suck at having phone conversations, even ten-second ones. But hey, if you want my lovely ridiculously young-sounding voice on your own personal answering machine (yes, I speak soprano and sing alto, that's just the kind of strange person I am), let it be known that the best way is to request books at the library till one of them comes in on a Tuesday afternoon, and then there you are. :P
"I speak soprano" -- does it sound like I'm talking about a foreign language or what? I wanted to make a funny joke about the primitive soprano culture of insert-location-here, but I can't get it to work. Think of something topically amusing and pretend I wrote it, okay?
What threw me -- what always throws me -- is that if your voice is a decidedly feminine soprano, you're probably not James, so why are you answering like you are? Were it more likely I was speaking to James I'd say "we have the book you requested", or were I told "may I take a message?" I'd say "we have the book he requested". But I get that major huh?? moment when I have no clue either way.
You'd think I'd have done better than I did with nanowrimo with my just-demonstrated ability to wax loquacious about the most random and miniscule of subjects, huh?
And I always feel bad when I can't pronounce peoples' names. I've got one of those impossible last names myself and I'm never insulted when other people murder it, but I still feel strangely guilty when I manage to get every single short vowel long and vice versa, every hard consonant soft, and so forth. *shrugs* Yet another reason I suck at having phone conversations, even ten-second ones. But hey, if you want my lovely ridiculously young-sounding voice on your own personal answering machine (yes, I speak soprano and sing alto, that's just the kind of strange person I am), let it be known that the best way is to request books at the library till one of them comes in on a Tuesday afternoon, and then there you are. :P
"I speak soprano" -- does it sound like I'm talking about a foreign language or what? I wanted to make a funny joke about the primitive soprano culture of insert-location-here, but I can't get it to work. Think of something topically amusing and pretend I wrote it, okay?
