Raised Right

Last week a chair broke in someone's office at work. What do you do with a broken chair? You take it outside and leave it in the hallway. Clearly at some point elves will come in the night and take the chair off to the great chair burial grounds.

Alas, this being near the holidays, the elves must have been off, as the chair remained in the hallway for some time. So long, in fact, that our office secretary took it upon herself to move the chair the 40-or-so yards to her office where she could arrange it to be picked up.

Now, our office secretary is about 67, and was recently back to work following knee replacement surgery. She is also one of the sweetest people you will ever meet.

As luck would have it I rounded the corner to the hallway just as she reached over to pick up the broken chair. Now, there was no way I was going to let her drag that chair down the hallway by herself. The ensuing conversation went something like this:

Ed: Let me grab that for you (taking a chair leg in hand)
Secretary: No! I can get this myself. You have more important things to do.
Ed: What could possibly be more important than helping you carry this chair?
Secretary: That's sweet, but I can get this on my own.
Ed: Well, you'll have to drag me with it because I'm not letting go. You're stuck with me. Why don't we do this together?
Secretary: Allrighty then.

About halfway down the hall I think she realized that this was going much better than dragging the chair behind her. Why? At about the half-way point, she looked at me and said:

Next time you see your mother, you let her know that she raised you right.

So, if you are reading this blog, mom, you raised me right. I know you were in doubt as to that based on my previous blog entry chronically staying up until 4am drinking. Nevertheless, you raised me right.

-Ed