Weekday with Bernie

I almost feel bad writing this because I like the person who said it. But it's probably a good lesson for everyone in what not to say to other women. And I'll preface this by saying that she knows nothing about my personal life.

Bernadette, we'll call her Bernadette.

So there I am working diligently in my cube and not at all surfing the Internet or anything like that. Bernadette walks up to my cube and starts talking to me about work stuff over the partition. She has to show me a document so she walks inside my cube. While I'm considering the question she's asked me, Bernadette gets up close and personal with the photos I have displayed near my monitor.

She points at one. "That's new," she says.

"No, that one's always been there," I say, "I just moved them around a little bit."

She shifts her attention to two more photos. "Who are they?" she asks while pointing at the faces of my niece and nephew.

"That's my nephew, my husband's brother's son. And that's my niece, my husband's brother's daughter."

"Wouldn't it be nice if you could put pictures of your own babies in there?"

Shocked, I say, "um... yeah, that would be nice."

"But you're not even trying," she says.

I could just end the story right there. Because that conversation is enough to thoroughly piss off an infertile woman. Not me, but another infertile woman. Just sayin'.

"You don't know that," I laugh. And I did chuckle because I'm so taken aback that someone is saying this to me. Although, I get this on a weekly basis at work. Someone will bring their baby in and, like clockwork, someone else will chime up and say, "now it's Sara's turn" or "when are you going to have a baby, Sara?"

Bernadette walks away, but comes back to my cube later to ask me if I'm going to the health fair that my company is sponsoring that day. I tell her that I'd like to, but I'm just too busy. She walks off and goes down the hall to the health fair. When she's done visiting all the vendors Bernadette breezes past my cube.

"They're doing massages at the health fair, Sara. You should take a break and get one to relax. It will help you get pregnant."

Whiskey tango foxtrot, people.

I have to laugh at it, though, and remind myself that people are just being nice in their own weird way. And they don't know I'm going through this private struggle. But this was a good day, too. Had she caught me in a different mood, I might not have been able to be all rational and shit.

PS: Bernadette is the same person who said I didn't look like the cooking type.