I was riding out a quiet night at the shop last week when a young lady and her beefy boyfriend came wandering in. She was looking for Chinese symbols....of course...so I directed her to the gargantuan book we have and waited as she flipped through.
"I know what I want," she said after a second, "I want 'Princess'". Okay. This one always makes me snicker into my sleeve. I just look at it this way, 'Princess' refers to the daugher of a Monarch, or one who marries into a monarchy. It doesn't mean a cute, special girl whose daddy/boyfriend loves her dearly. Princesses don't wear flip-flops and pajama pants and smoke menthol cigaretttes and drive Volkswagen Jettas. However, my opinions are not given when they are not asked for, so I dutifully nodded, and took the book over to the copier.
Beefcake mumbled something to her and as I hit the copy button, she called out to me to wait. "I wanna look around a little first." Sure thing, Princess, have at it.
I wandered around for a bit, goofed off with some of the guys and then came back to see how she was doing. "I have a question," She began. "I need your opinion."
"Okay, whatcha got?"
"Which do you think sounds more conceited, "Beautiful", or "Cute"? " She asked, referring to the symbols. Now, here is where opinions get me into trouble. You know that filter between brain and mouth, the one that keeps most of the bad things out? Well, mine is pretty coarse, in fact, a car could make it through that filter. When I get to work, though, I try to dial it down several notches, screen things a little better. Unfortunately, that day, she was really begging for my real opinion, in fact, she even acknowledged the conceit and I just couldn't resist.
"Both." I replied quickly. "But certianly not as stuck-up as calling yourself a princess, because if you were, you wouldn't be standing here talking to me right now." My immediate impulse was then to slap myself on the forehead. However, I have stellar contol over my arms, even if I have none over my mouth.
To my surprise, she nodded and agreed. "Yeah, I think I'll do 'cute', it's all the same and I like the symbol." As if we were trying to decide between the yellow dress and the red dress and I had said I preferred red. Wow, that chick is a good sport. And I was lucky that Beefy McDunce was completely oblivious to what happened or he might have pounded me into the floor like an eight-penny nail. So, she got her symbol and was happy as a clam. She hugged me and tipped me and headed off into the sunset. I had to admire her, at least she called it for what it was and respected my agreement. Most people are sorry they asked for my opinions.
