Phyllis

Ok so.

I work with some really strange people (2:30). I think it takes a special kind of person to be a phlebotomist, because a lot of them are a little weird. Don't get me wrong, they're not ALL strange, and they're generally nice people, just a significant proportion of them are just a little... off. At least the ones I've worked with. You can't really explain it; you just have to experience it. Never a dull moment.

Anyway, we hired this person, "Carrie," a few months ago. A sweet, middle-aged black lady. One morning, very soon after I met her, Andrea and I were sitting in the office eating breakfast when she joined us.

We got to talking, and at one point she told me that I looked like a friend that she had when she was a little girl. [Well, I do have that generic white girl look.] She told me that her name was Phyllis and that she was her first white friend and they were very close for many years. She went on for a few minutes and kept looking at me with a curious look saying that I favored Phyllis so much.

Ever since then, she has called me Phyllis. For a while she would come in to work and say, "Hey Phyllis!" and warmly hug me, like she'd met her long lost friend. At first I figured that she was jokingly calling me Phyllis, but it's been a few months and she's never called me Jennifer.

I'm starting to think that she either thinks my name is Phyllis or thinks I actually am Phyllis, reincarnated or something. Because she looks at me a certain way sometimes. And the only reason I can come to one of those conclusions is because of the history of the people I work with. Or maybe she thinks I'm the weird one. I don't know.

Not that it bothers me; I actually respond to Phyllis and figure that's just what she's going to call me. It's not creepy and she's just as nice as can be; I've learned just to go with it when things like this happen.