February 15th, 2008 by Jennine

The Direct TV receiver in our basement overheated and melted its internal organs so we called to order a new one. Today the installation guy came out to replace it. “How nice!” I thought to myself, “He’s on time and everything!”

With baby in arm, I welcomed this man into our kitchen to complete the paperwork. I noticed that he was the observant type, looking around at everything. We made little eye contact. At one point, I became uncomfortable with the conversation. He was asking how we could possibly afford to have seven children and live on the amount of acreage we have with a relatively new home. He asked what my husband did for a living. He asked what I did for a living. It was just not right.

After he did his job and left, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being questioned that way. I began cleaning in my kitchen while contemplating the cost of changing all the locks on the doors and that’s when I realized what just happened.

I am a lover of tea and my favorite is Red Raspberry leaf. I buy it in bulk on the internet, in loose-leaf form. So as this guy was standing in my kitchen, this is what he saw on my counter:

This is what he did not see:

He so thought I was running a little business on the side! Now I’m for sure going to change the locks.