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Dear Reader,
Is real life stranger than fiction?
Yes siree...
Years ago I conducted job interviews for companies, and one of them offered telecommuter positions--working from home--so if a candidate was local I actually did the interview in their home. I'd talk with them extensively over the phone, to make sure they were a good match before setting up a home interview. But on one occasion I was caught off guard--way off guard.
I was politely greeted at the door, invited in, the woman offered me a cup of coffee and the interview began. Everything was going fine, but when I was in the midst of asking, "Tell me something you don't like about yourself and what you're doing to change it," a blue and white parakeet came swooping over the top of my head. Then it flew up to the top of the curtains, but just before landing, a plop of parakeet poop went sailing down to the floor. And that's when I saw it--the floor--it was covered with poop. Little round parakeet poops, gray on the outside with a creamy white center. (A healthy parakeet's poop is semi-moist at first, but dries very quickly and they poop several times a day. I've since done research.) This parakeet was obviously extremely healthy (but it's owner was not), because there were layers and layers of poop on the carpeting, mountains and valleys of parakeet poop, and even the brownies the applicant had baking in her oven couldn't cover up the foul stench.
By this time I wasn't even listening to the job applicant's confession of what she didn't like about herself and wanted to change. Who cared? The heck with the usual interview routine, it was time to break away from the regularly scheduled interview questions, with a Breaking News-Flash!
"What's up with this parakeet poop?" I felt a tinge of embarrassment after I asked the question, but the woman wasn't embarrassed at all.
"Oh, that's Charlie. Isn't he cute? He does poop a lot doesn't he? I can't find the effort to keep up with it."
And I couldn't find the effort to offer her a job.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:
(NonFiction)
LIAR, TEMPTRESS, SOLDIER, SPY: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
(Fiction)
BATHSHEBA: Reluctant Beauty by Angela Hunt
(Mystery)
A CURIOUS BEGINNING by Deanna Raybourn
(Fiction)
IMPOSSIBLE by Julia Sykes
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