after a realllllly long day:

i'm at the hair salon waiting to see a new stylist named mary.  my old stylist was awesome, but he moved back to indonesia.  so...i'm seeing someone new.  it's loud in there - lots of blowdryers running, etc. - but i hear my name, look up to see a woman smiling at me, she introduces herself as "m," and we go off to her station.  she says something like "so you're new here!" and i say, "oh no, i've been coming here for a while - i'm just new to you!"  we talk about what i want done to my hair (basically, make it how it looked 3 months ago), and then we walk over to the sinks for her to wash my hair.  she says, "so, you're not new?  they had in the computer system that you were a new client."
me: "um, nope!"
her: "and you're andy?"
me: "um, claire?"
her: "what stylist are you supposed to see?"
me: "um, mary?"
her: "i'm em."
oooooh - she's em, not m (perhaps this mary person goes by her initial only, i thought when i heard her say her name).
and then it's back to the front of the salon where mary is waiting for me and i have to sheepishly explain that apparently i can't hear.  em picks up her client - a man named andy.

things we have learned: your gender is not listed next to your name when you make an appointment.

geez.