Tuesday, January 15, 2008

My alter ego (the other "I")

Have you met my alter ego? So far she is without a name, but I can describe her in detail. In my everyday life I imagine myself to be an educated, sophisticated (not in the fashion sense, but in the been-around-more-than-one-block sense), white-collar, management type. More familiar with things that can be done at a desk. All too familiar with committee and coalition meetings, conference calls, hearing and avoiding the use of buzz words like empowerment, stakeholder, scorecards, benchmarking, core competencies, process improvement, re-engineering... blah,blah,blah. Suits are the uniform, heels the standard. Will drive around the block 4 times in search of any place to put the car that doesn't require parallel parking.

And then I get behind the wheel of a 35 foot Winnebago equipped as a modern dental office.

That's when my alter ego shows up. She's an overweight, 40-something with baggy jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. She prefers a quick sandwich from a truck stop over sitting down to an expensive meal, thus saving precious driving time. Need to start a generator in sub-freezing weather? Need to know all the best radio stations in all four corners of the state? Need dental equipment repaired or a cabinet reattached to the wall? She's your woman. Unafraid to grab the tool box and shimmy under the RV to see why the leveling jack isn't going up. Ready to accept the challenge of squeezing into tight parking spots and navigating narrow bridges on rural roads.

I admit it. I lead a double life.

1 comment:

Shari said...

It's a great visual to imaging you scooting under the RV and handling the truck stop fuel refill!

I like the Great Things link! Tell me how to do that, would you please.