Seriously?! THIS is my REAL job!! YES!! Seriously…

Anybody who has known me for any length of time, will at some point notice and mention that I get to meet more than my fair share of whack jobs… And on the whole, I’m mostly fine with that as I see it as something that goes with the territory… You deal with the general public and the general public consists of all sorts…

I guess every tarot reader gets asked enough times to make their eyes roll, what it is that they do for a living? I work events where most people who get a reading are doing something for the first time and I put this question down to either a touch of nerves or an effort at polite small talk akin to the hairdresser asking if you’ve booked a holiday yet. Sometimes, I smile and say – I do this, this is what I do 🙂 Other times, depending on the crowd and the mood, I may roll out an outrageous lie and see if I can get away with it… There was this one time when I managed to convince someone that I was a pro- arm wrestler and captain of the ladies UK team…

But I had an experience a few months back and you know what… even though it’s happened before, there’s a little part inside of you hoping that the last time was the last time and so you just don’t expect to yet again get asked that question by other business women who have approached you, claiming that they have researched you and claiming they want to discuss collaborating with you…

Out came those words…

What do you do for your real job?

Now apparently my face obviously never betrayed the slightest hint that leaked any clues to the massive f-bomb that had just exploded in my head…

THIS… THIS IS WHAT I DO…

Yes! But what’s your real job…? 

THIS… THIS… THIS…IS…MY…REAL…JOB…

By this point, my head is filling with the opening theme tune to The Muppets and I let a serene smile spread across my face and decide to settle in for the show and see where it goes… Yeah, yeah, yeah… a saner person would probably have made their excuses and walked out at that point… I have been blessed/cursed with a morbid curiousity… so I let them talk… I won’t go into the details of how utterly ludicrous their proposal was… but let’s just skip to the cherry on top…

Ok, so if the first question wasn’t bad enough, then get this…

Would you like some time to think about it, to go home and ask your Husband what you should do?

Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

ASK MY HUSBAND?!!! WHAT THE HELL HAS IT GOT TO DO WITH HIM??

And with that, I decided the final curtain was down and I was off…

I didn’t dignify the question. Seriously, I don’t need to ask my husband permission for anything, nevermind if I should take a gig with someone who baulks at my fee and obviously thinks I’m going to arrive on a broomstick as the money on offer would barely cover petrol costs, never mind my time…

Depressingly, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this kind of thing and unfortunately, I fear it may not be the last…

But WTF? WT actual F? OK… I can excuse a chancer… this is business and people want to haggle…

BUT… this is 2018 and WOMEN and I am keeping the focus on women here as I have never to date encountered this nonsense from a man… WOMEN think it’s ok to ask other women what their real job is and then they think it’s ok to suggest that they get permission from the Hubby… FFS! I’m surprised they didn’t go for the hat trick and poke their noses into my childcare arrangements…

Well… just for the record, I did for my own amusement recount the ‘deal’ and ask my husband what he thought I should do…

His reply…

Ok… who are you? and what have you done with the real Karen?

What do you mean Mr S?

Well… the real Karen, would have nodded along, laughed like a drain, said yeah, I’ll be in touch then shredded and tossed their business card over her shoulder as she strolled away…

Ah… good old Mr S… he’s not business minded but he sure knows me 🙂