We Have One

(Hannah dressed herself and picked out Sarah's clothes this morning. She also helped me make breakfast because, "I don't want you to have too much work, Mommy").


There has never been an e-mail. There has never been an "agreement" to sign. Somehow Friday after 3 PM turned into Friday at 8:30 AM, but we were promised "a very nice man" to deliver our water cooler and that part was true. He arrived before Daddy had left for work (he is enjoying the light traffic and empty office that comes with winter break) and he said very cheerily, "Good morning, Sir! I have a new machine for you!" Seriously, his pleasant voice and words at that hour of the morning on another rainy, grey day in Belgium were enough to help us forget that we have not a single clue how much we owe for this "machine" and the fact that this deal has taken on a life of its own. You might be thinking, "That is an outrage!" or "Why in the world did you ever sign the delivery paper for something when nothing was as it was supposed to be!?" If you are thinking that, then you most likely haven't been living in Belgium for the last (almost) 2 years and you probably didn't exert entirely too much effort just to get the proper person on the phone to schedule the appointment that used up more than an hour of your time, including about the only hour of sunlight in an entire week. You probably haven't lowered your expectations of what is "supposed" to happen. You probably wouldn't just be content to have a convenient way to drink clear water that doesn't smell strange and that you really don't even like bathing your family in or using to brush your teeth.
I'm almost certain the delivery guy had rehearsed the cheerful greeting (hey, I'm not mocking, I rehearse almost every bit of French I speak and if someone asks me something I haven't practiced or uses a little different wording, forget it) and if we had questioned him about any part of the delivery process whatsoever, we would know no more than we do right now. The fact that we have used this company for almost 2 years and that they wrote our last name as "Lee" instead of "Tsi" (which although also incorrect, was the best I could get when I set up an account with them) on the invoice is also not surprising in the least. I find that rarely is anything a smooth transaction and if it is, I often leave feeling very uneasy, like I've done something illegal or at least am about to be followed home and yelled at for "doing it wrong".
So, we have one.