Going to the Landespolizei: an Adventure
Well Happy Yom Kippur... Actually, we don't say "Happy" because there is nothing happy about not eating. I made it until about midday with the fasting. Bad Jew! Bad! I was at work and usually you are supposed to stay at home and reflect on the past year and atone for your sins. Since I am saving all of my days off, I had to go to work and that meant having to use some of my brain and without food? No bueno. So again, hope you all had a serious and thoughtful Yom Kippur. The Husband is out tonight and it is me and the Kid. Yesterday he was perfect and today the Nanny said he was great save for a nap. But of course when I got home, he started getting kvetchy so I went proactive and offered him everything in the apartment he is usually not allowed to play with because this Mommy be tired, yo. We still have no idea why he had 3 fits over the weekend. I assumed he was coming down with something on Monday but he was fine all day. I thought maybe his stomach was upset but he ate well on Sunday night. Who knows?! Figuring out what causes the Kid to have freak outs is a bit like the Da Vinci Code... but without the fun history and car chases and pretty paintings.
Tonight I will be watching Beetlejuice (because EPIC) and catching up on e-mails. On Thursday I am going to a book presentation with a friend and then if we are up for it, we will stop by the Beaver Brewing Company for a drink. Tomorrow morning I am visiting the lady doctor. I am not looking forward to it because nobody looks forward to it. But it must be done. Sigh. Otherwise this week is kind of low key... save for the anticipation for yesterday's morning meeting. A week ago I got an official letter in the mail. Nothing ever good comes with an official letter in the mail. Ever. It was the Landespolizei (Ministry of the police) summoning me to their offices because apparently there was an error with my Vorstand (board). I of course saw big German words and put the letter to the side, hoping that magical elves would translate it for me. On Sunday night the Husband asked me if I was prepared for the meeting and I shrugged and said "No." and then he got a little panicky. He's an engineer and is a very linear thinker. I, on the other hand, think glitter makes a fantastic impression in business meetings. I also like to think that Ikea adds extra bolts just for fun. He gave me this look after I said "Meh. I'll just go and see what happens".
Luckily he offered to come with me in the morning because I think he might have had visions of me a la Sally Fields screaming "NOT WITHOUT MY VEREIN!" in the lobby. I dropped the Kid off at kindergarten and went back home to pack my paperwork into my snazzy and very professional hot pink briefcase. The Husband met me in front of the scary intimidating Soviet-block like building at 9:45. The appointment was for 10:15 but apparently the letter said to arrive 20 minutes earlier. Who knows, I barely read the letter. We walked through a small door to the right and had to stand in a small little waiting room. A policewoman behind bullet proof glass asked for our id's and the invite. I almost said "And will there be entertainment this evening?" but I didn't. She asked me if the Husband had to come with me and I went into a bit of panic mode "Um.. he doesn't have to be but uh.. uh.. well it would be nice because I uh.. uh..um..." and thankfully the policeman around the corner yelled out "It's fine if he joins you!" and I stopped from keeling over. Our bags were checked and we went through a metal detector (I almost wrote "medal" followed by "damn straight"). The Husband found the policeman hilarious when he yelled at him for setting off the alarm. This is where Austrian humour still confuses me. We passed the security checks and took the elevator up to the 4th floor where we were instructed to wait in the hallway until we were called. One man came out and apologized that he would not be seeing us and that someone else would take over our file that morning and I wondered if we had somehow stumbled upon some magical land where government officials don't put out cigarettes on your bare arms (not that that has happened to me... yet).
Just past 10:15, a kind looking man poked his head out of his office and asked us to come in. He was dressed in corduroy and looked like a professor. (I am a big fan of corduroy and I don't know why but maybe it reminds me of all the whole cast of Family Ties. Man did I have a crush on Michael J. Fox's character.) Cough. Anyway, his office was filled with plants and anytime I am in an office and feel like I might be in trouble, I Kaiser Soze stuff so that if the conversation goes south I can be all like "Barcelona, eh? Lovely little town." and hope the distraction works. My heart was pounding as we took our seats and I half expected the man to look at my file and be like "You know what I think of your Verein?! This!" and then rip it up, set it on fire and then light a cigarette off the embers. Overactive imagination? Moi? Non! He did not do that. Instead, he looked over the statutes and then said "I only found one tiny little problem... you didn't mention the exact number of people needed to vote on decisions." I told him the number and he smiled and nodded and wrote it down and then looked up and said "All done!" And I looked at him in surprise. I asked a couple more questions just to make sure I hadn't completely messed up the General Assembly procedure from last week and he kindly printed out a form I would have to have filled out and signed. At one point he spelled my name wrong and he giggled and apologized profusely when I pointed it out. I also said, "I'm sorry, my German isn't great. I'm Canadian." And I laughed a little. The guy across the desk stopped and looked at me and in a very serious tone said "No. It's perfect. Beautiful actually." and there was an awkward moment of silence. Then the Husband coughed a little and we moved on.
After 15 minutes, every thing had been cleared up and I almost hugged the guy. He was ridiculously friendly and it was such a relief that the meeting was over with. I am also incredibly grateful that the Husband came with me because I probably would have ended up walking into the bullet proof glass downstairs, giving myself a concussion, in panic. So, I just have to type in a new little sentence into the statutes (that a friend put together for me - she rocks) and toast to the corduroy-clad nice man. I truly was shocked at how nice he was and hats off to his plant collection "Plants, eh?" After the meeting I headed to work and then headed home to make a dinner of carbs. It was Canadian Thanksgiving and I was not going to cook a turkey so I pretty much make stuffing, roasted potatoes and pumpkin cookies. This is why I am fat. After putting the Kid to bed, we watched a Jays game (not live) and I gossiped with a friend over PM. It was a great last minute Thanksgiving but I will totally be hosting a real one in November when there are no longer skulls allover the apartment - Columbus I am not. Oh burn! Anyway, Happy Yom Kippur.. Dammit! Not happy, never happy! Toodles! (Sidenote: stay tuned for my recap of meeting a fabulous lady this afternoon. She has over 30 years of experience in autism and I think I shocked her with stories about the support here. I apologized. Maybe)
Tonight I will be watching Beetlejuice (because EPIC) and catching up on e-mails. On Thursday I am going to a book presentation with a friend and then if we are up for it, we will stop by the Beaver Brewing Company for a drink. Tomorrow morning I am visiting the lady doctor. I am not looking forward to it because nobody looks forward to it. But it must be done. Sigh. Otherwise this week is kind of low key... save for the anticipation for yesterday's morning meeting. A week ago I got an official letter in the mail. Nothing ever good comes with an official letter in the mail. Ever. It was the Landespolizei (Ministry of the police) summoning me to their offices because apparently there was an error with my Vorstand (board). I of course saw big German words and put the letter to the side, hoping that magical elves would translate it for me. On Sunday night the Husband asked me if I was prepared for the meeting and I shrugged and said "No." and then he got a little panicky. He's an engineer and is a very linear thinker. I, on the other hand, think glitter makes a fantastic impression in business meetings. I also like to think that Ikea adds extra bolts just for fun. He gave me this look after I said "Meh. I'll just go and see what happens".
Luckily he offered to come with me in the morning because I think he might have had visions of me a la Sally Fields screaming "NOT WITHOUT MY VEREIN!" in the lobby. I dropped the Kid off at kindergarten and went back home to pack my paperwork into my snazzy and very professional hot pink briefcase. The Husband met me in front of the scary intimidating Soviet-block like building at 9:45. The appointment was for 10:15 but apparently the letter said to arrive 20 minutes earlier. Who knows, I barely read the letter. We walked through a small door to the right and had to stand in a small little waiting room. A policewoman behind bullet proof glass asked for our id's and the invite. I almost said "And will there be entertainment this evening?" but I didn't. She asked me if the Husband had to come with me and I went into a bit of panic mode "Um.. he doesn't have to be but uh.. uh.. well it would be nice because I uh.. uh..um..." and thankfully the policeman around the corner yelled out "It's fine if he joins you!" and I stopped from keeling over. Our bags were checked and we went through a metal detector (I almost wrote "medal" followed by "damn straight"). The Husband found the policeman hilarious when he yelled at him for setting off the alarm. This is where Austrian humour still confuses me. We passed the security checks and took the elevator up to the 4th floor where we were instructed to wait in the hallway until we were called. One man came out and apologized that he would not be seeing us and that someone else would take over our file that morning and I wondered if we had somehow stumbled upon some magical land where government officials don't put out cigarettes on your bare arms (not that that has happened to me... yet).
Just past 10:15, a kind looking man poked his head out of his office and asked us to come in. He was dressed in corduroy and looked like a professor. (I am a big fan of corduroy and I don't know why but maybe it reminds me of all the whole cast of Family Ties. Man did I have a crush on Michael J. Fox's character.) Cough. Anyway, his office was filled with plants and anytime I am in an office and feel like I might be in trouble, I Kaiser Soze stuff so that if the conversation goes south I can be all like "Barcelona, eh? Lovely little town." and hope the distraction works. My heart was pounding as we took our seats and I half expected the man to look at my file and be like "You know what I think of your Verein?! This!" and then rip it up, set it on fire and then light a cigarette off the embers. Overactive imagination? Moi? Non! He did not do that. Instead, he looked over the statutes and then said "I only found one tiny little problem... you didn't mention the exact number of people needed to vote on decisions." I told him the number and he smiled and nodded and wrote it down and then looked up and said "All done!" And I looked at him in surprise. I asked a couple more questions just to make sure I hadn't completely messed up the General Assembly procedure from last week and he kindly printed out a form I would have to have filled out and signed. At one point he spelled my name wrong and he giggled and apologized profusely when I pointed it out. I also said, "I'm sorry, my German isn't great. I'm Canadian." And I laughed a little. The guy across the desk stopped and looked at me and in a very serious tone said "No. It's perfect. Beautiful actually." and there was an awkward moment of silence. Then the Husband coughed a little and we moved on.
After 15 minutes, every thing had been cleared up and I almost hugged the guy. He was ridiculously friendly and it was such a relief that the meeting was over with. I am also incredibly grateful that the Husband came with me because I probably would have ended up walking into the bullet proof glass downstairs, giving myself a concussion, in panic. So, I just have to type in a new little sentence into the statutes (that a friend put together for me - she rocks) and toast to the corduroy-clad nice man. I truly was shocked at how nice he was and hats off to his plant collection "Plants, eh?" After the meeting I headed to work and then headed home to make a dinner of carbs. It was Canadian Thanksgiving and I was not going to cook a turkey so I pretty much make stuffing, roasted potatoes and pumpkin cookies. This is why I am fat. After putting the Kid to bed, we watched a Jays game (not live) and I gossiped with a friend over PM. It was a great last minute Thanksgiving but I will totally be hosting a real one in November when there are no longer skulls allover the apartment - Columbus I am not. Oh burn! Anyway, Happy Yom Kippur.. Dammit! Not happy, never happy! Toodles! (Sidenote: stay tuned for my recap of meeting a fabulous lady this afternoon. She has over 30 years of experience in autism and I think I shocked her with stories about the support here. I apologized. Maybe)
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