Banter.

"Was that you singing?" I say to my co-worker Mary Ann, who was humming in her cubicle.

"Yes," Mary Ann answers.

"Oh thank God," I say. "I thought the fire alarm was going off."
___

Heather and I were shelving magazines once in the bookstore, and I had a hairstyle magazine in my hands.

"Hey Heather, do you know where this hairstyle magazine goes?" I ask.

Then, I pause and look at the top of her head.

"Oh no, wait," I say. "You wouldn't."
____

"Where's Darren?" I say to Heather in the music department of my store.

"He's on break," Heather says. "Can I help you find anything?"

"No thanks," I say. "I wanted to talk to someone useful."
___

"Lenny's ONLY 50?" I ask, looking at a co-worker's birthday card.

"What?" the person next to me asks.

"Geez," I say, "someone needs to take better care of their skin."
___

I am fairly certain that the way I talk to people, generally in jest, is not amusing to others.

At the store, my co-worker Casey ceased calling me by name, instead referring to me as "that boy who works in music" or "the Devil herself," after I joked a bit too much.

Vicki, another bookseller, told Casey that was my method, that I'm just looking for people who will challenge me and banter back. Vicki was absolutely right.

At the point where someone called me "evil and sexist," though, I decided to calm it down until my sense of humor could be better understood.

Everything's OK now.