Not the best of times, not the worst of times.

Don't you hate when things happen that not only inconvenience you, but anyone who is involved?

Today, I found out that my bank lost a check. It's not their fault. Technically, they sent the check to a collections service or something and THEY lost it. But the bank, naturally, has to deal with the inconvenient consequences (ie: telling me, working out a way to fix it, etc.).

Now, my bank has been extremely helpful to me in the past, and I understand that this sort of thing happens. I also understand that these people are trying to do the best they can to work out a solution and help me to straighten all of this out.

Their solution so far has been: E-mail the person who issued the check and see if they can issue another one. Either that, or see if they can wire the money directly to my bank account.

So this situation is inconvenient. Not only is it inconvenient for me (who doesn't have the money I expected to have before the Thanksgiving Holidays), but it is also inconvenient for the issuer of the check (who has to worry about the lost check and where in the world it might be and decide whether to send another one or to deal with the situation in another way), and for the bank employees who have to deal with who sent the check when and where it was sent and who put it where.

I think part of dealing with situations like this in a civil manner is understanding that there is not only one person inconvenienced by the situation at hand. It would be easy for one party or another to get frustrated with the outcome of a failed transaction and to start throwing blame one way or another. But I think that throwing blame is a good way to get nothing accomplished.

I mean, yes, I am frustrated with the amount of time it took to deal with all of this. The check was sent one day (with a little delay and unexpected inconvenience on that end, but that's alright), received one week later, given to the bank the day it was received, and was supposed to take 30 business days (no weekends or holidays) to be deposited into my account. So I have been waiting on this money for the better part of 2 months to find now that it's all for naught.

But being frustrated gets you nowhere fast.

I'd like, now, to quote 13-year-old me's favorite movie The Mummy. And trust me, I could recite that movie. My favorite quote from that movie is when the desert people are attacking Brendan Frasier's ship as it's on it's way to the lost city. Brendan Frasier is telling Rachel Weiz to jump overboard, and he's getting impatient. "Patience is a virtue!" she reminds him. "Not right now it isn't!" he tells her as he picks her up and throws her off of the burning ship.

Bottom line = There is no burning ship here. I can wait. I don't have to go overboard.*

*And oh my gosh, didn't that just turn out to be the best analogy ever? I just made it up, seriously, right on the spot! Man oh man! I done good!

Update- Everything seems to be fine now. The situation was handled quickly now that we've turned to the internet to help us. Haha! I am so thankful (hey, it's thanksgiving, right?) for the cooperation and professionalism that has been shown by everyone involved. It's moments like these that help me to appreciate being a "grown up" (yuck! I can't believe I just typed that!).

I'm a big kid now!