Modern Day Fairy Tale

Once upon a time (this Friday night), I was out in the city with some friends (actually enjoying a weekend? add it to the list of what I love about psychiatry), and a young gentleman struck up a conversation with me at the bar.  Normally this type of conversation goes something along the lines of:

"What do you do in the city?"

"I actually live in Jersey - I go to med school in Newark."

"Jersey? Ew."

"I know, right? The worst."

And then we both chuckle and carry on with the conversation like two normal people.  On this occasion though, the gentleman in question had no interest in even continuing a conversation with someone from Jersey (understandable, though - I've heard Jersey-ness can rub off on people who stand too close for too long).  As soon as I mentioned NJ, he - I KID YOU NOT - started slowly backing away from me.

a video of the incident in question

"Jersey?  I don't know how I feel about that."  Takes two tiny steps backwards.

"Haha, I don't know I feel about it either," I self-deprecatingly replied.  He takes another few tiny steps backwards, his smile starting to waver.

"No, seriously," he said seriously.  And after just a few more steps backwards (still facing me of course - everyone knows it's dangerous to turn your back on either the ocean or someone from NJ), he had reached the corner of the bar, and he was able to safely turn away and immediately start a conversation with his friends on the other side without so much as a fake excuse to even pretend to end the conversation.

And we all lived happily ever after.