I R N Ingleesh Mayjer

And I found out this week that my writing is not up to par according to one of the folks on the phlebotomy team.

Now, I'm not referring to the way I use nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. I think I have that covered correctly about 98% of the time. No...this is far worse.

I don't write in CURSIVE.

Apparently that's a capital offense as far as one of the members of the phleb team thinks.

We take two copies of the complete patient log of our assigned floor to that floor every day. One copy stays on the floor when we're finished with rounds. The other comes back to the lab where we transfer the pertinent information to the computer.

It's basic stuff. We notate whether the patient is unavailable, if the labs have been cancelled due to a PICC line or a nurse draw. We note if the patient refuses, or worse yet, if the patient has died. You get the idea. Quick notes, just meant to keep a record of what we do.

It just so happens that much of my previous work history involved bookkeeping, or filling in little boxes. So, I quit writing in cursive and began printing most everything I write.

I've done it for years. Most of the time my printing is done in capital letters, is nice, neat and easy to read. Sure, there are moments when I'm hurrying and it becomes a bit sloppy, but that happens to everyone.

We come back to the lab, and if someone is doing the cancellation paperwork, we hand it over. If not, we do our own. The other day one of the two males on the team was doing the paperwork. His name is "I".

I handed my logs to "I" and proceeded to head to the stocking area to refill my tray. "I" did a couple of cancels and then turned around and began yelling at me for not writing in cursive. He then proceeded to tell me that I had no idea of the "rules" of writing and that any idiot knows that when you write in English you only use capital letters at the beginning of a sentence. You don't print things, you write in cursive. (BTW, "I" is from another country. He's a black Muslim male, married to an American white woman. He is from Sudan.)

He then turns to another member of the team who is also from that area of the world and proceeds to bitch and complain about me in Arabic. I basically told him to kiss my ass - however, not in those words. I just let him know that in all my working years he is the first person who has ever had a "problem" with the idea that I print instead of write.

Now I just flat out refuse to give him my paperwork. I smile sweetly at him and tell him that since it's so difficult for him to understand my writing, I'll just take care of it myself. That drives him far crazier since he absolutely *hates* to have any member of the female race act superior. Women are supposed to be inferior to the male, doncha know? Two steps behind with downcast eyes, too.

Yeah, right, bucko. Fat chance.