It’s All About Timing

A mother’s schedule is a finely balanced house-of-cards. It really doesn’t take much to send things into a freefall.

I knew the schedule was tight. A therapist once told me to allow time for the universe to burp. With the addition of each child, I learned that more buffer is needed in order to keep the schedule from unravelling.

8:30am Leave the house
9:00am Drop all three kids at Winter Camp
9:30am Physical Therapy (did a compressed program today)
10:30am Leave for Camp
10:40am Pick-up Poppyseed
10:50am X-ray
11:30am Arrive EARLY for 11:40 orthopod appt.

And it was going so smoothly too…

Until we arrived at the imaging center. It seems that the imaging center — which, BTW, is BRAND-NEW, was having technical problems.

Lady at the counter: I am so sorry but the Xray machine isn’t working today. I need to sent you back over to the old building.
FrumeSarah: Wow — what a pain that must be for you guys.
Lady: Not at all. Just sorry that we have to inconvenience the patients.
FS: No worries. It’s just across the parking lot and we’ve got time.
Lady: So just tell them that you are #28 and that you need to take the films with you.

Poppyseed and I walk over to the old building.

FrumeSarah: Hi. My daughter needs an Xray and they sent us over here from the imaging center.
Woman at the counter: Did you register?
FS: Register?
Woman: Yeah. Register. You need to register.
FS: They didn’t say anything about registering. The gal just told me to come over here.
Woman (sighing): Well, do you have your orders?
FS: No. The gal over at the imaging center took them.
Woman: Well, you were supposed to wait and get registered and then waited for them to walk you over.
FS: I didn’t know that.
Woman: Well, didn’t they tell you that?
FS: No. The gal told me to come over here.

This poor woman just about lost it! She called over to the imaging center and spoke with someone who told her that she had told me to wait and register and so forth.

Woman: Well, I just spoke with Erica and she says that she told you.
FS: She didn’t tell me that. She told me to come over here.
Woman: Are you sure she didn’t tell you to wait and register?

At which point, it was all I could do to control myself.

FS: Don’t you think that if she told me to register and wait to be walked over here that I would have, in fact, registered and waited for someone to walk me over here?
Women: Oh. Well, Erica is sending someone over with all of the paperwork.

Five minutes pass. And a technician walks in. With paperwork. For some other patient.

Woman: Where’s the paperwork for this little girl?
Tech: I wasn’t told about paperwork for this little girl.
Woman: Erica told me that she was giving you the paperwork.

FrumeSarah: Apparently Erica is confused about what she is telling people.

The net-net? We nearly missed our appointment! I called at 11:30 to say that we were running about 10 minutes late. The receptionist told me that we needed to get in the door by 12:00 noon or else they were going to lunch and we’d need to reschedule.

11:57am.

Whew!

Oh. And Poppyseed’s arm??

A-OK!