Most Embarrassing Moment :: UPDATE!

You may remember back in January I decided that enough time has passed for me to confess my most embarrassing moment. It involved me deciding to go to a shrink, seeing her several times and THEN realizing that she and I knew each other. Yes, pretty awesome.

Time for an update.

So my attitude toward shrinks is this: you don't have to be a psychotically warped personality to make good use of psychotherapy. Sometimes it is good to just have a neutral, safe person to talk over life's stresses with. During two very stressful times in the past, I've made good use of our benefits package and signed myself up for getting my head shrunk.

Life has been particuarly stressful the last two months so I thought, "Why not? Here we go again. Number three." I had to find a new head shrinker because of changing benefits and whatnot. So today I approached my first meeting with a total stranger (who would soon know my most embarrassing psychological weaknesses) with a bit of trepidation. The thought flitted through my mind, "I sure hope I don't know THIS person as well." The name was totally unfamiliar so I assumed I was safe.

Funny how our assumptions are so often incorrect.

The first hint that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park: the new therapist's office is directly across an office complex from my neighbor's dental office. I could just imagine him drilling into somebody's tooth, looking up through the large windows and seeing me trying to subtly walk into the office building next door. "I've always known she's a little off," he'd say to himself. After all, who wants to advertise to the world that they're going to a shrink? (I know, I know. But when I have a great story, I forego all logic of social self-preservation. Funny stories come first.)

I filled out the paperwork (name, phone number, address, SSN, blood type, promises of firstborn child if I don't give at least 24 hours notice of cancellation... Okay, I'm joking about those last two) and waited to meet the therapist.

She came around the corner, looked at my face and .... GRINNED IN RECOGNITION! Gosh, what a pleasant surprise! (Online sarcasm is so difficult to master, so I'll tell you now: that last sentence was laced heavily with sarcasm.) Her face looked familiar and my brain immediately went into overdrive trying to match the face to a setting. 

After only a moment or two, she said, "Oh, I've got it! I know you through singing!"

"Oh!" I managed to say with a smile. "NATS?"

"You used to take lessons from Martha right after me," she replied. Oh yeah. Same voice teacher, same night.

So I appear to be either blessed or cursed when it comes to finding therapists. The world in general is too small, or my own world is too large. Either way, life goes on. And some day, this will be yet another hilarious story for me to tell my grandkids repeatedly without noticing the polite smiles that ought to be a hint that I've told this story before.