Friday, July 31, 2009

Boundaries, please.

As many of you know, I get to meet a lot of interesting people at my job. Some of my clients are nice, some are not nice, but all are quite... special. Unfortunately, with some of these special people comes a lack of boundaries. Take these two instances from yesterday's workday:

1. I'm visiting with a client at her home. She's always asking me questions about my life ("How did you and your husband meet?" "What is your house like?") to which I give very brief and very vague answers. Then I change the subject. Yesterday the client asked me if I had noticed any stretch marks on my stomach. After giving her a simple "no" answer, she pulled up her shirt to show me her stretch mark filled stomach. What am I supposed to say to her? Too bad for you? Nice stretch marks? I was at a loss.

2. A few hours later I was visiting with another client, who recently had a gyno-related surgery. I pull up to her driveway, say hi and ask her how she was feeling, and the woman immediately says, "I want to show you this." Pulls up her shirt, unzips her pants, and pulls down her underwear (not all the way, but much lower than I'd ever want to see) to show me her stitches and bruising from her surgery. Once again, I was at a loss for words.

9 comments:

Lindsay Marie said...

haha. for some reason this just reminded me of ben's grandma at your bridal shower. you know, just another outrageous moment in the life of chrissi harris.

the lady i sit by at work gave me WAY too much information about her yearly appointment yesterday. i'll have to save that one for the next time we talk...

miss you!

Chace and Rivka said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chace & Rivka said...

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Taylor Kowallis said...

oh heavens! Do you remember my encounter with the stretch mark story?? Wolverine? If not you need to call me! haha! I want to hear how your indiana trip went and your other showers! Miss you tons!

Lissagerl said...

Wow!! Utah county clients ARE special. I never had any experiences quite like that, though I didn't have to work with the crazies as much as the sane foster parents.

Unknown said...

BARF!! I'm so sorry you have these experiences on a daily basis. It's kind of funny but not at the same time, people are nuts!

Janna said...

Um, wow. Special is right. Tough to think of something to say in those instances!!! ;) Talk about awkward.

Suzie Soda said...

Wow.....what kind of job do you do? I have had a few of those moments in my life. They are so outreageous I can't mention them here. I want to know what Ben's grandma said at the bridal shower? xoxoxo

Anonymous said...

awesome. i haven't had one of those in a while. since the abs incident and the condom talk. you are just one of those people that has "tell/show me everything about you" on your invisible name tag.