Professional Personal Communication (or why Katrina is so awesome)

Like an awful lot of people, my work provides a cell phone for my use.  As long as personal use is not excessive, they don't mind me using it for personal business.  Thus it is that Katrina will call my cell when I'm away from my desk.  Or when the land line is busy.  

Sometimes I'm out on a lunchtime bike ride.  Sometimes I'm running an errand.  Oftentimes, I'm in a different part of the office or on a conference call.  So sometimes I can talk, and sometimes I can't.  I pick up whenever I can.  But when I'm busy and I pick up, I have a rushed manner.  Then Katrina wonders if I'm having a bad day and want to talk about it, and it takes longer to end the call so I can get back to what I was doing.  Frustrating for both of us.

To Katrina's credit, she brought it up last night after I got home from rehearsal.  Instead of this uncomfortable dance on the phone, she asked that I answer the phone and say something like, "Hi boss.  Can I call you back in a few?"  Easy as cake.  

This could have been (and with countless other people would have been) an involved, "You don't understand me!" thing with hurt feelings on both sides.  She could say that I don't think she's important, I could say that she doesn't understand what I'm doing at any given moment.  We'd both have a good argument.  And we could stick to our arguments and go to bed angry.  Instead, she's thought through a solution from both sides of the story, and asked for what she needs in a way that doesn't negatively impact what I have to do.  Easy.  Painless.  And wonderful.

This is how a partnership/marriage/friendship should work.  Lovely.  How lucky I am!