You Just Never Know

I rented the costumes that I used in my senior project piece from U of M, and (I'll just call her) the costume mistress and I had set the return date as April 20th. Now, I don't know why I thought this, except for the fact that sometimes I clearly like to do dumb things, but I thought that after my final that afternoon, I was just supposed to just drop by and deliver the costumes. So, after my final the costumes were clean and dry and in my car, and I gave her a call to make sure it was a good time to stop by. ( I left a voicemail.) Then I swung by our apartment to review directions there from an old email. And lo and behold! She had emailed me! And she was NOT happy.

Part of her email read thus: "It's very unprofessional of you for me to have to contact you again about meeting your obligations. I will not be so willing to rent costumes to EMU students in the future."

:(

Clearly, I was supposed to have contacted her to set up a time to drop off the costumes. Which makes perfect sense, I still don't know why I would have thought otherwise. But does that really mean I'm an incomprehensible screw-up who has ruined her contact with all future Eastern students?

I felt absolutely rotten, and after a few sterile emails to set up a time the next day, I began to cry.

I was really afraid of the scowls and sharp remarks I might get when I dropped off the costumes in person. But I showed up at the appointed time and reservedly handed over the costumes. Much to my surprise, she was very pleasant and didn't seem even remotely irked with me. Just before I left, she commented cheerfully that the email she sent out to me was one of many such emails she'd had to send out yesterday, including some to her own students who were using costumes. "So," she said smiling, "if I sounded like a mom, I am!" I smiled and chuckled and left.

Sounded like a mom?! You sounded like to wanted to eat me for lunch!

I got into my car and shook my head. With a chuckle I asked no one in particular, "Really?" and drove home.