A Few Cases of Broken Telephone

I'm sure most of my readers played broken telephone as children. I personally loved the game, since from a very young age I understood that it was a prime example of how anything you say can be misinterpreted in a heartbeat. I was reminded of the game on all fronts this week.

Work
Due to recent events in my personal life, I had to revise my W4. In my infinite stupidity, I figured I would go low-tech, i.e. print out the form in order to complete it. The main snafu with that method however is that my printer stopped printing back in September. And yes, that is on the top of my list of To Dos; I just need to find a day where it is not raining and I am energized enough to carry the thing 15 blocks home. Anyhow, I was going to be on Avenue J, so I planned to drop by the library and use their printer. Great right?

I arrived within an hour of closing (maybe I need to stop doing that?) and signed up for a spot. I didn't mind that I would have to wait 45 minutes for a reduced time slot. After all, how long does it take to print two pages out? But I of course ran into a few technical issues due to my card. First, the reservation terminal refused to read my card. Then, when I was finally logged onto a workstation at 5:43, my print out didn't happen. I got up to ask the librarian for assistance, and would you believe it- I was barely 3 steps away from the workstation when a woman got up and logged me off! I told her to scram, logged myself back on, and managed to get the librarian's attention upon reaching her desk. That's when she told me that in order to print, I need to go put money on my card, then go back, log back on, and redo my print.

I decided thanks, but no thanks. My question for the BPL though is the following: Why is there not a sign over the printer informing patrons that in order to print you need to have money on your card? I'm sure I wasn't the first person surprised after waiting a nice period of time...

In the end, I completed the form the high-tech way. And believe me, I think I learned my lesson.

Home
I managed to get a hold of the landlord yesterday. He asked me why I hadn't called him sooner; he had been by the building that afternoon. To be honest, I had thought that I had heard his voice, but figured I was simply confusing all Israeli accents together, LOL. I decided to take the peaceful route, and failed to inform him that he was supposed to have called me. Instead, we made various arrangements to address the issues of repairs, rent and so forth. While I could tell he was ticked off, I'm glad we were able to hold the discussion. Too bad I had to chase him down, is all I can say.

I have more examples, but you get the idea. What can I tell you? Life, as of late, is nothing if not interesting. :p