No writers jokes in the ER!

So, in writers groups, we joke a lot about the voices in our heads. At least, we do in the groups I hang out with. Anyway! So a few years back I wound up in the ER with bronchitis/incipient pneumonia. And in the course of the intake, the ER nurse asked me if I heard voices in my head. I responded, “Not in the way you mean.”

Well! She looked at me, and it was that kind of look, without the least bit of humor. I could see an incipient 72-hour psychiatric hold in my immediate future. I rushed to reassure her that I was a writer… I remember scrambling in my purse to find my business card announcing my pseudonym to show her. LOL!!!

She did accept this (thank goodness for the business card!) but I’ll never make that mistake again! It’s not quite as bad as joking at the airport about bombs, but it’s in that general arena of things it’s really not a good idea to do.

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