Borrowed Identity

At one time or another, everyone gets mistaken for someone else. The typical "Hey, don't I know you?" has become the standard pickup line in a bar; a variation on that would be: "you look familiar....." or "don't I know you from......". Depending on your mood, these lines can be quite annoying. If the level of desperation is high, you might not wait until closing time to go home.

There are times when your appearance is screaming: "I work here! Ask me something, anything!" If this is not to your liking, don't wear a goofy hat in an amusement park or a bright colored tee shirt in a hardware store. If I'm not in a hurry and am in a playful mood, I've been known to be the person they think I am. My girlfriend in the goofy hat at the amusement park didn't know what to say when a woman in need of a restroom didn't believe she was not a park employee. My first reaction would have been to direct the woman doing the pee-pee dance to the other end of the park near the merry-go-round (and quickly disappear into the crowd). I've been in the hardware store and heard "can you help me?" three times before it dawned on me the other customer thought I was a rude employee. After I saw his dirty look, my response was, "I'll try"; little did he know that's when my playfulness kicked in. I skimmed the sale paper he shoved at me and told him we were out of Spackle; not to worry though chewing gum works just as good and is much cheaper. If he had a problem with gum and his dentures ("sorry, I thought......") maybe he could use some of his grandchild's play dough ("ohhhh, that's your daughter....."). As I quickly took my leave of the store I noticed my fellow shopper at the service desk asking for the manger.