Have you ever spoken with someone who acted so happy that just speaking with her is like being next to a giant subwoofer of happiness, and you almost feel like you will be blown across the room from her blast of happiness like Michael J. Fox was at the beginning of Back to the Future? Someone so invariably happy that it is hard to focus on what she is saying because her cheerful tone doesn't necessarily match her words?
Tim told me about this lady as someone whose smile you can hear over the phone—but not a genuine smile. It is plastered to her face, possibly through painful plastic surgery. No matter what she says, it is going to sound happy. I didn't fully comprehend the extent of this truth until I heard her youthful late-twenties voice over the phone this week.
“Hi, is Tim there!”
“No, may I take a message.”
“Please have him call me at my desk number, I have really great news for him!”
“Well, I'm his wife, would you like to tell me, or would you like him to call you back?”
“Unfortunately, we're not allowed to tell anyone else—not even spouses—but why doesn't he call me back, and I can tell him, and then he can tell you!”
“All...right, may I have your name?”
“Angie. A-N-G-I-E.”
“Okay, I'll have him call you.”
“Thank you. And this is really good news. I think you'll both be really excited about it. It's something we've never done here before, and I think he'll find it will really work to his advantage.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Thank you. It was so nice to meet you!”
Just simple words that may have been normal coming from anyone else. But coming from this lady, it was like being attacked by a powerful gushing fire hose, so that, as soon as I hung up the phone, I had to verbally release the blast of artificial happy energy she had focused onto me.
“WhooooOOOOOA! Whoa! Whoa! Lady, you are crazy!”
I'm not sure this lady would ever say anything that doesn't come out cheerfully. Not that she's incapable of being the bearer of bad news—it will just be really confusing to receive it from her. Just picture each of the following statements coming from someone with a smile plastered to her face.
“I'm sorry, you didn't gain admission to our program. But if you work harder next year, maybe you'll get in!”
“You have been convicted of bank fraud and will be going to prison for seventeen years. You have an hour to say goodbye to your family!”
“Your house just burnt down!”
As Tim pointed out, she is not someone you would want working at a funeral home.
- Carly
1 comment:
I sat next to a girl in HS band that everyone hated because she was the opposite. She was pessimistic about everything. EVERYTHING. Truth is, she was actually a likeable nice person, and I could actually see being her friend, but in the end, you just didn't want to be around her because she was always a downer.
So, I know what you are talking about, except the opposite.
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