Paperwork and a Hobbit
Three random life lessons and an ah-ha moment.
That’s the menu for tonight.
Life Lesson #1: Sometimes you start to get a sinking feeling a business relationship has the potential to turn sour. When this happens, make sure your communication is written and can be verified. This is especially important when you’re working with someone in sales who over-promises and under-delivers.
Life Lesson #2: When working with an insurance company, don’t take them at their word. I am in the process of working through a payment dispute from 2009. The company has changed its tune but (because I have everything in writing) I’m confident they will end up paying what they agreed to pay. The sad part of this situation is I’ve had to change my belief people will do what they say – because they won’t if they can get out of it. {disillusionment}
Life Lesson #3: Never, ever, under any circumstances, ask for a free quote for medical insurance on the internet. I innocently gave my phone number to the world wide web back in November. That day, within two hours, I had 40+ phone calls. It’s been five months since that fateful day and I still get at least two calls a day from companies. Horrible, horrible, horrible. (I’ve heard people with similar experiences for moving van quotes, so I’d recommend avoiding internet quotes as a rule of thumb.)
Ah-Ha Moment: I went shopping for a seven-year-old’s birthday present and ended up at the book store. (I got an origami kit for the little dude. Picking out presents makes me feel highly inadequate. I’m hoping the origami will be fun for him… it shows how to make elephants and giraffes. What else could a young man dream of receiving for his birthday?)
As I was waiting in the check out line my ears recognized a grating dissonance between the overhead bippity-boppity-boo candy pop music and trilling by the bargain book box. Curious, I craned my neck around tubes of Laffy Taffy and universally powerful magnets to see what was happening.
A short gal of roughly rectangular shape sporting a squaw skirt and flowing locks was loudly singing opera music to herself as she pawed through the bargain book selection.
She reminded me of a hobbit. She was not wearing headphones. The music came from her innermost being.
My first reaction was vaguely negative, because, my goodness!, the gal was singing opera loudly, I’m not a fan of squaw skirts, and hobbits tend to be frumpy.
But then I acknowledged I look like I’ve tucked a basketball in my shirt, by dusk of every day I’m hooking my backside up with a serious waddle and my hormones have given me the complexion of a teenager, so I’m really not in a position to be judgy about other people’s body types, fashion sense, or musical emissions…
… I stopped wincing at the opera against pop music irritant and began to just love on the fact this woman was in her element, not willing to let others keep her from her “groove.”
If we could all have that confidence… wouldn’t the world be a happier place? Maybe more chaotic, but also more fulfilled…
Sing on, my hobbit friend, sing your song. Thanks for encouraging me to sing, too!