Freewrite: Say What?

You ever have one of those times where someone asks you a question and you think you hear it correctly, but you really don't? This just happened to me at work today, and I feel like a colossal idiot, so I'm blogging about it to feel better. :)

So I work in the Biology Department, right? My job is to answer phones and be nice to students and tell everyone who they need to talk to. I actually do very little question-answering myself. I typically just hear the problem and point the student in the right direction to where they can find the solution.

Well today, this kid came in all sheepish and asked, "Hey, do you know anyone who works with Brian Shrimp?"

I squinted at him sympathetically. "Brian Shrimp? Hmm... I don't." I reached for the campus directory. "Which department is he in, do you know?"

"...Um...No I just... need to find... Brian Shrimp..."

I looked through the directory under the S's and found nothing. "Sorry," I said, "If I knew which department he's in I could redirect you, but without more information..."

I kind of shrugged helplessly. He smiled helplessly and said, "Okay, no problem, I'll just keep looking."

"Good luck!" I said. The picture of competence.

He left, and I went back to work on the computer, typing away, checking the clock...

Then suddenly--

It hit me.

Not Brian Shrimp

BRINE shrimp!!!

Do I know anyone who works with brine shrimp?? Of COURSE I do! This is the biology department!

I felt like such an idiot. I immediately left my desk and ran down the hall to catch up with the guy, who had thankfully stopped to talk to someone else. Without preamble I blurted, "I'm such an idiot! Yeah I can help you!"

We went back to the office and I found him a professor who's literally an expert on brine shrimp.

It was so stupid. After all that I've learned in my ELang classes, I should have known that we pronounce "brine" and "Brian" almost exactly the same way, and reworked in my mind what the guy was asking. In all fairness, he was being really vague and he didn't pick up on the fact that I was totally confused. Plus, most of the questions I get in any given day are just about people and places, not about tiny crustaceans, so it took my mind a moment to catch up.

The important thing is that I realized my mistake in time and helped that poor guy out.

Just another day at work in the Biology Department.