Alright, just a quick hello today — still alive, and still stuttering of course. I’ve gone across Saudi to my company’s home office to talk to some people about my next assignment. Since I know some people in the office already (from several years ago) they took me around and introduced me to others — so I didn’t have the stress of having to say my name at least.
After that, it’s a quick rundown of what I was doing and what I’m looking to be doing in the near future. And the meetings are usually really, really quick, less than a minute or two. Just a quick drive-by. Which is fine at this point. I had some longer discussions that I’m still waiting to hear the results on.
One fun stuttering bit that happened was here in the hotel. I needed an ironing board and iron. They weren’t provided in the room. But I looked through the guest handbook thingy, and it says you can call a number (housekeeping) and ask for it.
So … I have to … use a phone. To say the word … iron. And ironing board. And I have to do this. Gotta look good for the office visits!
So I took a nice deep breath and tried to think past my stutter, tried to ignore the word, tried not to think about how I was going to stutter. I thought about already saying the word, no problem, no problem, no problem.
Them: Hello, housekeeping.
Me: Ah, yes, hi, I need an iron and ironing board.
No stuttering! Success! Sweetness.
Them: What room are you in?
Me: !@#$!^%&%%!!!!
Are you kidding me?! I thought you knew this. I thought hotels had this part covered. Always. It’s a simple contract — I pick up the phone, you know it’s me. Here, apparently, not so much.
So yeah, I stuttered out the room number.
I’m still calling it a win. I mean, it would have been a win at another hotel, probably.
Hello. I stutter. 