I am nobody's sweetheart.

So there's this "consultant" at my job lately who is here to help us with blah blah blah, it doesn't matter. Anyway, another jeweler and I were asked (read, told) to sit with this consultant guy and one of his former employees to learn some tricks of the trade. Great, that's fine, I like learning new things, and I enjoy seeing how other jewelers may do something differently than I do. So I walk up to consultant-guy and he says, "hi sweetheart."

Um, what?

My brain INSTANTLY goes, ok, you can stop calling me THAT now. But my mouth is too busy saying hello to the jeweler whose hand I am shaking, since we are being introduced.

So here, we are....the consultant (who, by the way, was wearing pajamas), his jeweler guy, the other jeweler from my job, and me. Four people...only three of whom are appropriately dressed...only two of whom speak English fluently and sans accent...and, somehow, only one of whom is repeatedly being called things like "sweetheart" and "hon". (He also had other terms of endearment, but I think I've blocked them out of my head.)

WTF.

I"m sorry. Do I NOT have a degree in Jewelry and Silversmithing? Am I not an accomplished jeweler who is, though by far the youngest jeweler at work, one of the best jewelers there??? HELLO?!

I am nobody's sweetheart.

I managed not to kill the guy the for the rest of the day, despite his inability to call me by name. He did go out of his way to come over and say goodbye at the end of the day, but it wasn't worth a damn to me after he said, "see you tomorrow, sweetheart."

At this point my work friends (who know my personality) were making fun of me and calling me all things under the sun. At least they made me laugh.

I thought I was done with the name-calling until I walked in today and was greeted with, "hello sweetheart."

SERIOUSLY!?!?!!!

If he calls me anything other than my name again, I have vowed to a) kick him in the teeth b) beat him senseless with a ring mandrel or c)tell him I have a name and he needs to use it.

He'd better hope I'm in a good mood at the time.