Just need to get this off my chest....

Now that I'm a blogger (and I use that in the loosest sense of the word....not that I'm loose, cause I'm not...I just mean, I'm not a professional blogger....actually, I'm maintaining my amateur status so I can blog in the next Olympics)

But, I digress.

Now that I'm a "blogger," I find myself thinking of things in day to day life that I might need to be sure to include in my blog. I'll think of clever titles to blog posts while I'm laying in bed before I fall asleep. Something will happen to us during the day, or I'll take a picture of something and Chris will say "well, that's going in the blog!" Well, today, I experienced for the first time a woman who made me say "I am SO going to blog about her!"

You may find it immature of me to vent about this woman on my blog but you know what?

My blog. My rules!

(And besides, Dr. Phil tells me its best not to let my feelings remain all pent up inside me....really, he does.)

Today, I had to take Carter for a hearing test before he gets his tubes in his ears tomorrow. I wasn't too stressed about it. My kids have all had hearing tests before (usually compliments of my good friend Carey) We arrive at 8:20am for our 8:30am appointment. I notice when I walk in that there is a lot of remodeling happening which has left the place filthy. The waiting room chairs were covered in dust. There was a lot of clutter too, but that may have been due to the fact that things were misplaced while rooms were being remodeled. Anyway, I filled out all of the necessary paperwork and the kids and I hung out on the pile of dirt chairs until time to go back. Around 8:35am, a woman (who I recognize as being the audiologist from a picture of her on a billboard in town) walks in a back door, looks directly at me but does not speak or even smile, then walks around Emma without speaking to get into another room close to where we are sitting. She came so close to Emma that I even said to Emma "oh, Emma, can you move up here and say 'excuse me?'" (all the while thinking to myself that this woman's mother obviously never taught her that same courtesy) Anyway, she comes back out of the room and walks around Emma a second time (even though Emma had moved closer to me) and again, doesn't speak. Carter even makes eye contact this time and, being the social butterfly that he is, smiles really big and says his "Hi!" noise at her and kind of follows her a few feet where he stands and looks at her.

Now, most human beings at this point, would have made some acknowledgement of a cute child smiling and saying hi to them. Maybe even smiling back at them, or waving, or ANYTHING. She does nothing. Just goes about her business. A few minutes later (about 8:45 by this time...which if you're keeping track means she is 15 minutes late starting her very first appointment of the day) she comes back out and with no smile, no emotion, no anything says "follow me" and continues walking. No "Hi, welcome, you must be Carter, you must be Carter's mom, my name is so and so" just a flat, emotionless "follow me." So, I pick up the toys Carter was playing with and put them back in his diaper bag, I bend down to pick up my coat, Carter's coat, Emma's coat, the diaper bag, my purse, and my son. I follow her into the next room where before she says anything else, says "you aren't supposed to bring other children with you to a hearing test, but we didn't have your phone number to call you and tell you that. However, I guess she is a little older so we'll see how she does."

Cut to me with my jaw wide open.

I turn to Emma and I say, "Emma, will you please sit right here in this chair and be sure to be very quiet and not say a word until we're all done?" So she does. (she does perfect by the way, not so much as a overly ambitious eye blinking) So, the audiologist starts to put a little thingie in Carter's ear and tells me to be sure to hold his hands down so he doesn't grab it. So, I do. She puts the thingie in his ear, and he immediately tries to reach up and feel what she put in his ear. He's strong. He breaks my grip. She yells "OH NO, you have to hold his hands!!!!" OK, my bad. I accidentally let him break free...but seriously, he is strong and I wasn't quite ready for it yet. She starts again and this time, I'm ready and have a much stronger grasp on his hands.

She starts the test and he sits there like an angel. I mean, it can't be every day that she has a 16 month old who sits that perfectly still while she does a test on them. He didn't make a sound. He didn't move. She takes it out and switches ears, he is just as good. She gets done and I kiss him on the head and tell him he's such a good boy thinking she'd at least chime in with "yes, most kids don't sit that still" or something. Nothing. I get another emotionless "follow me." So, we stand up...she's half way down the hall while I'm still trying to pick up the 3 coats, purse, diaper bag, and a 30 pound kid. I finally get out into the hall where she is standing there waiting with her hand on her hip, just short of tapping one foot on the ground in total disgust like your fifth grade teacher always did when the class was dawdling coming inside from recess or something.

We go back to a big room where she does his actual test. Emma sits outside the sound proof room on a chair reading a book. Never makes a peep. We go in. He does his test. He is also perfect. Lets her stick things in his ears. Does his test. Never cries to get down off my lap or anything.

She comes around and gets us and says "ok, you're done" and starts walking back out to the front. I follow. She stops at the front desk and looks down at her papers. The receptionist asks if we want candy or stickers. We take some stickers. I say "is that all you need?" the recptionist says yes. We start to leave. The audiologist doesn't even look up. Doesn't say "Thanks" doesn't say "bye" doesn't wave to Carter or Emma. Nothing. However, the construction worker who is standing nearby stops what he is doing to open the door for me and then smiles and says "bye bye!!" to Carter. Seriously, can we have that guy do our hearing test next time?