Interesting People

I work at Cricket Communications, which is a cell phone provider here in the Greater Salt Lake region, as a sales rep. I deal with a LOT of people every day. They are mostly angry/disgruntled/upset/livid customers who have billing problems or phone problems. When I first started working there, it would bother me when they became so angry. I would get flustered and try to appease them with credits, my cell phone number, words of comfort, etc. However, after 365 days of dealing with the same type of customer, I've become very callused toward the typical Cricket clientel. I definitely DO NOT give out my number anymore...woah, that was a mistake I made and won't make ever again. I also don't give out as many credits and am a little more hard-headed than I ought to be. I mean, once you've heard "I dropped my phone in my Coke and now it won't work... *$^!&@**!!" then you've heard it a million times and you kinda just stop caring. Haha! It's sad, but it's very true. So it makes it very very nice when there is a person or two who break the mold and give you something interesting to think about/see/experience. Yesterday was one of those days. It was a pretty slow work day (hallelujah!) and this man comes in with his wife. He asks if I can help him make international calls, and I notice that he has an accent and I can tell it's not the normal Spanish accent, nor does he look Latino. His wife, close behind, has a silky brown scarf with orange, gold, and red colored circles decorating the top of her head. I automatically know they aren't the average Cricket customer and I become curious. So I ask him for his number and then inquire where he plans to call to. He replies, "Turkey". Cool, no? I gave him all of the country codes and city codes that have to be dialed and collect money that he wants to put toward these calls, and in my head I'm dying to ask him a few questions. As I muster up some courage, he turns to his wife and starts talking to her in a language I definitely don't recognize. SO, because I never paid enough attention in my Social Studies classes in high school, I decide to ask him what language he speaks. Ha! Duuhhh...he replies "Turkish". Haha! So I asked him to teach me a few words in Turkish (since it's not a language I know and learning something new is really exciting and cool!) and he kindly teaches me "merhaba" (hello) and "Nasilsiniz" (how are you?). Then I ask why he's in Utah (because that is a random place to live, I think. Why Provo, Ut?? It's not that exciting...it's a college town! Big deal) and he told me he was studying science at BYU and that he brought his family with him. He also JUST arrived to the US a week ago and speaks pretty decent English. I could tell he was still learning, but he knew a ton of English and spoke with a really good accent. His wife was really sweet and didn't speak any English, but she smiled a lot at me and gave me the peace sign when they left the store. Haha:) I loved it. It made my day!! I love meeting interesting people who have things to teach me. I mean, everyone has something that they could probably teach me, but this couple was really nice.

THEN, I later met Lance. Lance walked up to my counter, and with his pretty eyes and lipstick, asked if he could add a phone to his account. I looked at him for a moment, studied his red, pixie-cut hair, pink outlined lips, and darkly makeuped eyes and didn't understand why his voice was so deep. He truly looked like a slightly manly woman...not like a full blown transvestite. (I was thinking these things before I knew he was a man, but I had my suspicions.) Then I pulled up his account and there was his name: Lance. He was a woman-man. A man who wanted to be a woman. Anyway, he was pretty and he had nice teeth. Plus his wedding ring was very pretty too. It was a thick band with a few diamonds across the top AND his nails were done. It was all very surreal and weird. I mean, he was a man...but a woman. I didn't know what to do, so I just joked around with him and it was all very normal...but weird too. Anyway, so that's my first encounter with a transvestite. I've always seen pictures of them, but never actually saw one in real life. Especially not in Utah! haha:) Oh man. Love it.

So, yes, I hate my job. I definitely don't love dealing with angry complainers all day, but sometimes I get a few interesting people who make my job worth all the annoyance.


Now these people...interesting doesn't quite cut it