Strange Conversation

NOTE: Some of the details in this story have been changed, but the gist of the story is the same...

I had a strange conversation the other day, and I don't think I handled it quite correctly, and as a result I'll probably be uncomfortable around this person henceforth..

Let me back up to before the conversation, though. I was sitting in my office last Wednesday when I got a phone call from a teacher at one of the schools. I answered the phone and she said to me, "Good morning, Mr. Sweasy."

"Hi," I replied. "What's up?"

"Well," she told me, "I'm moving classrooms, and the principal wants me to take my computer but leave my printer where it is and use the printer that's already in the new classroom. Can I do that? And if I can, do I just plug the new printer in and it'll start working, or do you have to come and take care of it?"

I remembered that this teacher had gotten a new computer in the spring. "You have a brand new computer with Windows 7 on it, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, most likely you should be able to just plug the new computer in and the operating system will recognize the printer and you should be good to go."

"Okaaaaaay," she said. I could hear the hesitation in her voice.

"Or if you don't feel comfortable you can just put in a work order and someone from the technology department will come and hook up your printer for you."

"That would be great," she said, sounding relieved.

"It's really not that hard, though," I told her. "Why don't you try to hook it up yourself, and if you can't we'll come do it for you? I promise there's nothing you can break in the process." She agreed, and we ended our conversation.

But that's not the strange conversation. It happened the next day. I was at a region wide training which included several staff members from the district. I was sitting in the back of one of the meeting rooms waiting for a session to begin when this same teacher came into the room and then sat down in the chair beside me.

"Hi, Bryan," she said to me as she sat.

"Hi," I said in return. "How are you?"

"Good! It's been a good day!" she said.

"Has it?" I said. "I guess I've gotten some things out of the day, but this time of year I'd really rather be back in the district getting ready for the start of the year."

"I know what you mean," she said.

After a momentary pause, I said, "So...did you get that printer hooked up?"

"Huh?"

"You're moving rooms, right? And leaving your old printer behind. Were you able to get hooked up to your new printer?"

"Oh!" she said. "No. I called Mr. Sweasy and he told me to try it and put in a work order if I couldn't. But I don't have time for that. I'm just going to wait for a few days and then put in a work order and let him do it."

Then it occurred to me as it's probably already occurred to you: she thought "Bryan" and "Mr. Sweasy" were two different people. She had no idea she was talking to the same person she'd had the phone conversation with the day before.

I really didn't know how to respond to her comment. I could have done the most honest thing and corrected her misconception there on the spot, told her that Bryan and Mr. Sweasy were one and the same, but I didn't want to embarrass her as she'd just admitted to not doing what she'd agreed to do. I could also have taken the polar opposite approach and prodded her for questions about Mr. Sweasy to see what she really thought of "him." After all, here was a chance to get feedback from a staff member that was unfettered from worries about hurting my feelings. But I decided that was patently unfair to this staff member. Plus, what if she had really harsh things to say about me? Did I really want to hear that? In the end, I turned the conversation to the upcoming session and what we were hoping to get out of it.

I guess I'm hoping that eventually--maybe in a few weeks or months--she'll realize her mistake, and by then the memory of the two conversations so close together will have left her and she won't be embarrassed by her mistake. But the conversation did leave me with a couple of questions that have been bothering me ever since then:
1) How many other teachers are ignoring my advice and doing whatever they want, and in the process creating more work for me?
2) More importantly, what exactly does this staff member think "Bryan" does in the district?