Responding to the "So what do you do?" question

Last night was the official "ice cream social" at C-mans soon-to-be-school. Beerman is once again in Denver, so C-man and I had a nutritious McDonalds dinner so we could make it to the school on time. And the "So what do you do?" small talk started to happen.

And I.Hate.This. Because I get to respond "corporate trainer". Which nobody really gets. Then they ask me if I know so-and-so at the corporate office, and I respond, "There are 4000 people in that building, and nobody seems to have time or interest to take training, so chances are good I've never seen this person."

And then they ask me what Beerman does. And then the gushing starts. And I get surrounded by men. Googely-eyed men who all have a gazillion questions that I've answered a lot before.

Seriously. The guy wasn't even there. But it's all the dads wanted to talk about. And it's always the same MO...

Do you get free beer? Yes. A lot? At least 3 cases a month. All employees do. It's often more. Do you have a lot of friends? Yes No, because too many people are free-loaders Does he get to taste test? Yes, twice a day. It's a requirement of his job that he's gone through some pretty extensive training to be able to do. Is it the coolest job ever? My husband is not with me right now because he's working. How do you get a job like that? You have to be really smart, and take a lot of chemistry and micro-biology, work a ton of hours, have a passion for what you're doing, really like single-cell organisms, and have a little luck with who you know. So how much free beer do you get? (sigh...)

The whole time I'm looking at these guys going through the checklist of who is there... "lawyer", "doctor", "ridiculously successful small business owner", "engineer", "university big-wig" and thinking 'seriously, you guys can afford your own beer. Why does this make you shiver with excitement?' Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I've got something fun to talk about and it conveniently is about my husband. And what's great is that it usually ends up being a conversation that includes both men and women instead of the annoying pink and blue, kids and sports divisions of a party. But if I have to answer, "Does he homebrew?" one more time, I very well might just go batshit on somebody. (The answer is no. I mean seriously, do you bring your work home and do it for fun?) I'm a corporate trainer, damnit! That's cool too! I swear it!