the underwear drawer

"cathy"

I've just let this one go too far. It's my own damn fault.

So there's this really nice Ortho scrub nurse. Super-friendly. Always smiling, always says hi. When I was doing a stint in regional anesthesia back in the fall, we met, and she always greeted me in the locker room in the morning. "Hi Michelle!"

She knew me. She knew my name was Michelle. I got complacent.

Then, sometime around Christmas, this nurse started calling me "Cathy." I think she was getting me confused with another resident that graduated last year--another resident who, I think it probably goes without saying, was an Asian woman named "Cathy." The first time this nurse called me Cathy, I thought I heard wrong, so I just said hi back and continued on my way. The second time she called me Cathy, she was with a bunch of her friends, and I didn't want to embarrass her by being all, "Actually, my name is Michelle," so I just said hi and kept walking. The third, fourth, fifth, twentieth time this happened, I don't know what my excuse was, but the point is, I never corrected her. Because I am dumb.

NOW SHE THINKS MY NAME IS CATHY.

She even calls me by a nickname now. "Hi Cath!" she says brightly in the morning. And I answer to it. I ANSWER TO CATHY. But my friends call me "Cath."

I let it go too far. Now if I tell her, "Actually, my name is Michelle," she's going to be like, "Then why did you let me call you 'Cathy' for three months, fucktard?"

How am I so lame as to get into these situations?

And what's going to happen when she eventually realizes my name is "Michelle?"

Maybe I'll tell her that my middle name is "Cathy" and spare us all the embarrassment.

Damn.