It was Unbelievable!

A few days ago, I was privileged to have an appointment at the lovely new medical facility in North Albany to get the annual painful pictures taken that may save my life some day. This was my first visit to this place, and I was very impressed with the landscaping and decor as I walked in. I was greeted with the smell of fresh coffee and noticed a sign that said "Starbucks coffee proudly served here." I marveled at the gorgeous large waiting room with its lovely comfortable furniture, beautiful carpet, and even a fireplace. After I checked in, the receptionist invited me to help myself to coffee and advised me that they were running a little late.

With great pleasure I filled a cup with coffee, carefully chose the most interesting magazine, and donned my lovely new reading glasses. I settled in to enjoy some quiet reading time. As I reached for the fragrant cup of coffee, somehow it fell sideways. Coffee flowed across the table, which ran the full length of the sofa directly behind it. Coffee pooled in a line against the back of the sofa, the poured down the back of it. It covered the magazines on the table and flowed off the other side, making puddles on the carpet. I immediately called for assistance and the receptionist brought a few paper towels, calling for someone else to bring towels. The other girl carelessly carried off the magazines, dripping coffee all over the carpet and couch. We wiped and blotted until things looked presentable. They said to leave the dirty towels under the table so that the cleaning crew would look for spots.

Receptionist offered me another cup of coffee with a lid. I declined, then snuck a cup after she went away, standing out of sight in a corner to drink it. It was delicious!

Then today at work, things were very hectic. I took a call where I had to hold the receiver away from my ear as a man yelled at me because our library should be open 7 to 4 like the school is but it's always closed and his daughter can never check out books. He pays taxes and he expects that someone will be in our library at all times so that students can check out books. He is not going to put up with this. It is absolutely ridiculous. Is that understood? I tried to explain to him that our librarian has recently been needed to supervise state testing in a computer lab but he wouldn't stop talking. "There is no excuse for the librarian to ever be out of the library. This needs to change. Do you understand? There will be someone in the library during all school hours from now on at all times. Is that clear?" Finally I spoke over him and said I would be happy to help arrange for his daughter to check out a book if he would let me talk, but right now I was done listening to him and was going to hang up. If you want to calm down and work it out, call back. Goodbye. Fortunately he didn't call back. The sad thing is, I know exactly who it is because he has called before with unreasonable anger. (Our library is always open before school and at lunch, just for the record.)

I also had a few personal calls about our new insurance and a dental appointment for a son. I heard my cell phone make the missed call sound, then soon it rang. I wasn't able to answer it, but I checked and saw two missed calls from the same number. I called and a voice message from Samaritan Health Services answered. I figured it had something to do with the insurance, then saw that I had a voice mail. I listened to it with growing disbelief.

"Hello, this is Ryan from the billing department at Samaritan Health Services. I'm calling to confirm that we have the correct address for you to send a bill for cleaning charges due to the coffee spill in our waiting room when you were here earlier this week. Please call us at (number) and ask to speak to Cindy Mills. Thank you."

Now, my co-worker's name is Cindy Mills. I thought I must have heard wrong, so I listened again. Then with great annoyance, I said, "Cindy, have you ever heard of anyone else in town with the same name as you?" She said, "Yes, I believe someone who works at Calapooia has my name." Outraged, I said, "I can't believe it! She must work for Samaritan Health Services now. They are going to bill me for cleanup of my coffee spill from the other day. Can you believe it?!!!"
I was shocked when she nearly fell off her chair laughing. Turns out her daughter works for Samaritan and they hatched this little plan after she told her of my mishap. She immediately called her daughter to let her know how well their plan worked. Her daughter told her that the first time Ryan dialed, he hung up before I answered. He said, "I can't do this to her! She has Christian music playing on her phone!" But she convinced him to do it anyway, that as a Christian I would certainly react appropriately. Thank goodness he went to voice mail, because I'm not so sure how Christian my response would have been!

Remember my glowing evaluation of Cindy awhile back, how she seemed too good to be true? Indeed. But Will says this little episode ratcheted her up a few notches in his estimation! And I can guarantee you that if I let her read this blog, she will find at least three typos!