Maybe It's A Communication Problem...

Like one of you is an idiot.

I read this post by Jenny, the Bloggess - which made me laugh so hard I nearly snorted an oyster cracker out of my nose. I don't recommend it - it burns. So, then I went thru the comments and one of them referenced this article about some spy flap 'cause of a pretty flower on a coin.

And that made me think about a coworker's HILARIOUS story (we'll call him P) about being lost in Poland during a recent business trip. He went, by himself, to Poland from Germany to visit a supplier without a cell phone. Also without speaking the language. In a rental car that needed gas... fuel... petrol... whatever they call it over there. Without a map. Or the address of the company he was going to visit. Because he'd decided that Poland was small - smaller than Rhode Island - so of course he could just drive right up to the company 'cause they only have one road or something. (Truly, this man is the testosterone version of me sometimes.) And he got REALLY lost and couldn't find anyone who spoke English and he wandered in circles in Poland for hours. He went on to say something about finding a McDonald's that was attached to a Shell station and it was like a Heavenly light bathed the gas station and the angels sang because of course they would totally speak English there 'cause that was like American soil except in Poland 'cause we have fast food places attached to gas stations everywhere - that is OURS so if they have one, they must be us. Well, except that they aren't and they didn't (speak English, that is) and he nearly added something NOT gas to the car but was thwarted by the weird non-dispensing pump, which they apparently put on there to stop ignorant American tourists from ruining all of their cars with the wrong flameable liquid. Then he saw the sign on another pump with Pb in the ghostbusters no-ghosts circle thing and somehow made the leap (that I probably wound't have in a million years) that is was no Pb, no lead, UNLEADED so at least he had gas to wander around in circles some more. Somehow he made it back over the border to Germany, called another visiting American coworker (we'll say "R.") and went out for a beer. What he did not do was let the company (ours or the supplier) know that he was back and okay so the supplier called the company who freaked out and called everyone including the border guards on both sides of the Poland/Germany border. Someone called our admin here in the States, who called "R" on his international cellphone. The admin was freaking out over the missing "P," and got the answer, "no, he's not missing, he's right here next to me."

And that made me think about being in Mexico and being completely confounded that the pay phone didn't take quarters which struck me as being insane, until I remembered that we haven't yet taken over the entire world and their coins do not equal our coins.

I have no idea where I was going with this post, and it's 4:30 in the morning and I'm sleepy so I guess the moral of this story is to never let me travel anywhere alone. And Jenny rocks.