Sometimes context likes to punk you

I have been making a lot of calls lately. Media calls as well as calls related to various projects like our vehicle registration, getting the deposit back from our Dortmund apartment and getting Internet banking set up with our bank. For the moment, our bank in Germany is Sparkasse (combination of sparen/savings and kasse/cashier box).

Our car registration is set, we have our deposit back, but man, getting Internet banking has been a real pain in the ass. Hoop after hoop after hoop. And generally customer service is something of a national joke.

So I was really impressed when a person from Sparkasse called me at work the other day. I had tried to reach her a few days earlier and left a message with her colleague. She said she was calling from Sparkasse and I thanked her quickly for calling me back before launching into my long story about how Liza and I have been trying to get Internet banking working. It's a decently long story filled with opportunity after opportunity for our problem to be quickly resolved only to once again be thwarted by some obscure paperwork or requirement. And the woman was very nice, listening politely as I sat there at my desk apologizing for my horrible German but slogging through the whole story. With my final "so you can understand why I just want to get it finally set up" she said yes, and then took a significant pause.

"Herr Davis, ich arbeite bei Sparkasse Zeitung." (Mr Davis, I work for a financial magazine that happens to have a similar name, but otherwise no association to your bank, youcrazycrazycrazyamericanohhowIcan'twait-totellHeidiandUteaboutthisone.)

Hm. Yes. There on my list of media calls is Dr. Hans-Ulrich Eßlinger, editor-in-chief of Sparkassen Zeitung. And the little check box next to his name showing that I had indeed called yesterday to see if he would run an article about one of my clients. And now here was one of his editors calling me back with additional information about the article they would run.

Well. Now that we are acquainted. Yes, thank you for that helpful information.