3.23.2009

False alarm

Saturday morning, I had an early morning appointment across town. When I got there, I checked in with the receptionist and then realized that my phone had been on silent and I had a missed call.

I was early, so I decided to listen to the message. It was my home security company, there was an alarm event in progress at my house. Lovely. I quickly rescheduled my appointment and called the company back. Because they weren't able to reach me on the first call, they contacted my emergency contact who told them to send the police to the house. The emergency contact? My ex, the marinara jar. Lovelier.

Fortunately, there wasn't a break-in. I think after the kitchen remodel, the man who reinstalled the system put it on the most sensitive setting, which apparently picks up the movements of small animals in the motion detector (this happened two more times over the weekend, and all the previous times I've watched Hayden, it's never happened). This has definitely been the most eventful dog-sitting episode I've ever had.

Shortly after I returned home and found everything to be okay, I gave the jar a call, apologizing for the early morning disruption. As if that wasn't awkward enough, he was at his new girlfriend's house when he got the call. That had to be a fun one to explain. We had a good laugh about it--and it reminded him to change his contacts as he thinks that he may still have me listed. Time to update that.

And it got me thinking, that I need to carefully consider who I draft as emergency contacts. Not having any family around, or a significant other, makes emergency contacting hard. And putting a boyfriend on there, is almost like an advanced level commitment. Like when you go to a family wedding and an all-family picture is taken, and your aunt says that your boyfriend should be in the picture, because he's essentially family, and then he breaks up with you three weeks later, and your grandma has that family picture displayed, and it turns out he has more prominent exposure than you do because some tall uncle has stood in front of you and blocked your face.

I'm not going to take any more chances. Note to self: No ring? No family photos. No emergency contact status.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll be your emergency contact. I don't plan on going anywhere any time soon.

mike helminger said...

not sure about the no family photos thing, but i'd agree on the emergency contact one. i'd say sign me up too, but i'll be in the mountains too much to be of much use :)

little ms. notetaker said...

Thanks, friends! I've got the Commish and Monster... they were just secondary, but I'm making sure to promote them now (plus they only live a few blocks away).