Irony

I keep thinking of that song Ironic by Alanis Morisette… A few weeks ago a friend was diagnosed with cancer. Being a bazillion miles away (as I usually am when things go on with the people I care about) I thought I’d try to do something nice to let him and his fiance know I was thinking of them. I keep getting spammed by Hallmark on my Breigh.com mail account so I thought well may as well make it worth it for them. I went and had a look for something to send to him, but what do you get for a guy? There were a lot of flower baskets and such but would a guy really dig that as much as a woman would?

That’s when I found this Lucky Bamboo and thought hey! That’s kind of nice… sends a nice message too! I decided to order it, adding a nice message about luck and good health.. I even got a full sized Hallmark card for free along with my purchase, even though the message you could write on it was ridiculously short. Anyhow, I sent it super fast mail so it would arrive the next morning. The reason I did that was because I knew he’d be released sometime within the next few days.

Lucky Bamboo my arse…

I got an email the next morning from the delivery service letting me know that the package arrived at 9:15am and was signed for by a T. Lydon. I went to my friend’s blog and saw a message that he was being released later that afternoon. Thank god!, I thought.. It arrived in time! What I didn’t know was that arriving in time and actually arriving at the person it’s supposed to are two totally different things.

I waited for a message or a call from my friends, which people generally do when you send them something like that. Nothing… I knew it was totally unlike them so I messaged them asking if they recieved the package. They didn’t… They went back to the hospital a number of times and got the run around time and time again. I mean shit, if you have cancer do you really want to spend the time you’re not getting pumped full of chemo going BACK to the hospital to look for a package? I know I sure as hell wouldn’t!

So after about a week I called to the states myself .. I didn’t really care that it was 1:30am at the time that I phoned, it’s not like hospitals CLOSE! I got a nurse on the phone from the floor my friend was on and asked what she thinks may have happend, I assumed it was a nurse who signed for it. When I gave the name T. Lydon they passed the phone to her. She informed me that her husband is also T. Lydon and he works in the shipping department of the hospital. She also informed me of facts like, the shipping department doesn’t usually sign for packages and it’s not the resonsibility of the hospital workers to make sure patients recieve packages that are sent to them. Oh, and that next time I should send anything I want to send to the patient’s home. That’s me told..

I told my friends who they are supposed to track down, and they go back to the hospital again. They find the guy but he can’t find the PACKAGE! It’s nowhere to be found.

It’s now been two weeks and my friend never recieved the gift I sent him… Now that’s irony at it’s best, isn’t it? The “Lucky Bamboo” turning out to be the most unlucky package in the history of .. packages.

Not sure there is anything I can do about it, other than huff and puff and be angry that someone was so careless with something I actually put thought (and money) into. The snotty nurse told me that they aren’t responsible but I don’t really agree, since from what I remember if you SIGN for a delivery like that it does indeed make you responsible for it.

The house renovations are coming along nicely. The toilet is finished and the shower room is being finished up as I type this.. I’ll show some comparison pictures but before you North Americans out there look at it and comment, yes I know my toilet is away from the rest of my bathroom, yes yes I know it’s just the size of a closet… I know.. I know. At least I can have a crap while my husband is in the shower though, can you do that?! (Sorry that’s the best attempt I can make at appreciating the layout of Dutch “bathrooms”)

Anyhow, it’s a million times better than it used to be. I forgot to take pics before the tiles were ripped off and the shit-shelf toilet was taken away (and smashed)… but that’s the before and afters I did manage to get. Soooo much better!!

Last night I looked on our milk carton and right there on the cover it said “O2-09“. Which means that after Sept, 02 my milk is no good. We’ll drink it all before then anyway but the first thing that came to my mind was … man, you know summer is over when the milk says September on it.