Misunderstandings

I can't believe it has been a week since my last post - time has really flown by. Of course, a lot has been going on in the Hummel/Wuertley family, but you can read about that by clicking on the Hummel link. It's amazing, but that's all I'll say because you will get so much more out of just reading their blog instead of hearing a watered down version on mine.

I have experienced a couple of funny/awkward misunderstandings in the last few days, and I must say there is a certain kind of unsettled feeling that I get when I am involved in a misunderstanding. Here's the two scenarios.

Last Thursday night I was late for blog night. Tennis had ran late, I didn't get home until 7:00, the kids hadn't eaten, and blog night officially starts at 7:00 (although unofficially it's more like 7:30.) I threw together dinner for the girls (Jason was on his own this night) and was about ready to bolt out the door when the phone rang. Now let me tell you, this post could easily turn into what I hate about call waiting and caller i.d., but maybe I will save that topic for another post. I don't want to co-mingle topics. We do have both services (not my choice,) and I do utilize the caller i.d. occasionally, but not the call waiting. Anyway, back to the story. I decided to check the caller i.d. for two reasons - 1.) if it was JoEllen or any other member of Jason's family, I was going to answer it in hopes of an update. 2.) if it was Kelley or anyone else who was going to blog night, I was going to answer it in case blog night had been cancelled. In order to see the caller i.d. on the phone, I had to take it off its base. So I picked up the phone and saw that the person calling was my friend Melissa. I like my friend Melissa, I enjoy talking to her, and I hadn't talked to her in awhile. However, since I was running late, I couldn't take the call at that moment, so as I was staring at the caller i.d. screen and therefore inadvertently speaking into the phone, I yelled to Jason in another room, "It's Melissa, I don't want to talk to her right now." Then I realized that as soon as I had picked up the phone from the base, it had stopped ringing. Oh no, I must have answered the phone without knowing it and she heard me say I didn't want to talk to her. Now what do I do? I then tried to "answer" the phone again with a hello, but there was no answer. I decided that being a little later to blog night was probably better than severing ties with a good friend, so I quickly dialed her number back. No answer. I waited a couple of seconds, then dialed again. No answer. Well, at this point what could I do, so I grabbed my cell phone and headed out the door - I would call her on my way to blog night. So I dial her number in the car...voice mail. I have several options now. One, I could just give it up and pretend it never happened. Two, I could call her back tomorrow and play dumb, saying that I saw on the caller i.d. that she had called. Three, I could leave a voice mail message saying that I had just missed her call and was now returning it. Or four, I could 'fess up to what really happened. Against my better judgment, I chose four. How does one really explain to a friend what happened in the above scenario, especially over the phone. Let me tell you from first hand experience, you can't without sounding like an idiot. But I decided sounding like an idiot was better than potentially offending a friend, so I left a message that spanned from Dairy Queen on the bypass all the way to BP on state rd 9 about how I didn't have time to talk but I inadverdently answered the phone and blah blah blah. After that voice mail I didn't know if I felt better or worse, but the damage was done and all I could do was wait. My friend did call me back the next day and the kicker....SHE HADN'T EVEN CALLED ME! Her two year old son likes to play with her phone, and she said he must have accidentally dialed me. I'm an idiot.

Scenario #2. The names of the parties involved have been changed to protect the innocent, but this story is too good not to share. It also goes hand in hand with my last post and being fearful. We camped this weekend with another family, let's call the husband and wife Brad and Angelina. Friday night was terrible traditional camping weather, but we enjoyed an evening in the camper playing games. Saturday morning the weather had cleared a little, and I was preparing the eggs in the camper for breakfast pies. Elizabeth, still in her pajamas and no socks (but wearing tennis shoes without her heel all the way in) had ventured out of the camper but came back in to get her Sudoku puzzle book. She grabbed it and left, and I assumed she went to the Pitt's camper to do puzzles with Angelina. Baby Shiloh was napping. Fifteen minutes or so went by, the eggs were done, and I noticed a strong gas smell in our camper - either Jason or I had turned on one of the burners without lighting it, so we were slowly gassing ourselves. I needed to dress Anna, so I grabbed her clothes and headed to the Pitt's to get her dressed and get Elizabeth for breakfast. Jason and I knocked. No answer. We knocked louder. Still, no answer. We opened the camper door, and the camper was empty. Jason yelled, and Brad yelled out "I'm taking a shower." Okay, Elizabeth and Angelina must be taking a walk or something, which seemed odd, because it was wet, rainy, and Elizabeth was in her pajamas. So Jason yelled out, "Where's Angelina." Brad yells back "She's in the shower, too." Oops. Two very different emotions ran through my body - fear (where was Elizabeth) and embarrasment (wow, no wonder the Pitts like to camp.) Jason and I start yelling Elizabeth's name, running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and no Elizabeth. Last ditch effort - I run to the showers at the campgrounds. I have no idea why she would be in there, because we have a toilet in our camper, but I had no other ideas. I burst into the bathroom, and there stands Elizabeth, holding her Sudoku book and leaning up against the wall. I didn't know whether to yell at her or hug her, so I yelled first, then hugged, then realized the truth - Angelina was taking a shower here in the bathhouse, not the camper. OHHHHH! So my fear and embarrasment quickly turned into relief and laughter - another misunderstanding that caused again so much stress.

I hate the feeling of frustration and embarrasment that comes with misunderstandings. I remember in the 5th grade I had just had my first perm in my hair, and my fifth grade teacher reached out to touch the curls, and I thought she wanted to give me a hug, so I tried to hug her. Very awkward, and I can't believe I still remember that. My first year of work, I went out to eat at Pizza Hut during home visits with a teacher, and we both ordered a lunch buffet, but I had water (poor newlywed) and she ordered a coke. When the bills came, she handed me the one with the coke on it. I'm too non-confrontational to speak up, so I paid for her coke. Another misunderstanding - I'm sure she didn't mean to give me the wrong receipt, but I got stuck with the buck ninety seven.

Even worse than situational misunderstandings are verbal misunderstandings - especially when you really mean what you said but you can't get across the true meaning to the listener. Yep, I've had that happen several times, too.

Then of course I have had times when I wasn't misunderstood, I just stuck my foot in my mouth. But again, another topic for another post.

Triathlon Training Update - Nope, not done one thing since the triathlon for the 2007 Mighty Mississinewa Triathlon, and I miss it. I think we are going to do the homecoming 5K. We've got plenty of time to train - it's not for another two weeks.