Calling It In

I decided to take a sick day today, surprisingly, because I'm not feeling so great (does anyone ever actually do that?). Last night, I'd pretty much decided that since I'd been feeling crummy all week, if I woke up still not well, I'd make the call. Just as I got in to bed, however, I realized that I couldn't remember the extension of the person I'm supposed to call when I'm going to be out sick.

This was particularly frustrating because I actually work with her all the time and while I managed to think of the first two digits of the extension, it was the last two that were evading me, and the ones that really matter. So it was, that at 11pm at night while lying in bed, I pieced together an extension that seemed familiar and decided I'd give it a try (you know, to hear from the voice mail who it was).

I dialed a number and waited while it rang and suddenly remembered that old proverb, "If a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?" and began to think of the office, silent and dark for the night, when suddenly the overly loud shrill of the phone breaks the silence, the red call light providing an unusually bright light with everything else so dark. You know what happens next. Yes, I did in fact think the thought, "If a phone rings in the office and there's no one there to hear it, does it really make a sound?

Apparently I'm super philosophical late on the eve before a sick day. And also strangely persistent when it comes to try to track down someones extension.

As it turned out the extensions I'd dialed was wrong, as was the next one, and at that point I realized the futility of my actions. There are probably about 80 extensions in my office, and there are only 2 of them I actually know by heart. One of those is mine. Not to mention, all I had to do in the morning was call the receptionist (a friend of mine) and be transferred. Furthermore, I may be the only person in the history of corporate America who has gone on an extension dialing spree (albeit a short one) in order to fully prepare myself to maybe call out sick the next day depending on how I felt. There's a first time for everything, I s'pose.