monday december 7

today i received a call from the canada revenue agency. as soon as the woman on the other end of the line identified herself as a cra employee, i remembered that i’d received a piece of mail from them several weeks ago that required a response — i’d skimmed it at the time and then completely forgotten about it.

immediately after i remembered this, my demeanour on the phone changed, and i started acting like i was a kid who had been called into the principal’s office. when she asked me if i’d received the aforementioned letter, i said "no," spinning a yarn about how my mail delivery had been unreliable for a few weeks. this was actually true, but i was so unconvincing in my delivery that there’s no way she could’ve believed me.

of course, from her perspective, she didn’t really care whether or not i’d seen the letter — she was just calling because there was one small detail that needed clearing up, and now they were trying to get it settled the phone rather than my relying on me to mail them back. i wasn’t in trouble at all, and when i shakily answered the one question that needed to be answered, she announced "okay, that’s it!" and i let out a burst of nervous, relieved laughter. she must have thought i’d never used a phone or spoken to anyone in a position of authority before.