this morning I received a phone call at 7:36 am… I was a bit worried when I answered it – usually phone calls that early don’t bode well…  it was a woman from Canada Employment Insurance who I had been playing telephone tag with for a few weeks…

I had received a letter from her a number of weeks ago, stating that I had not provided correct information about how much CPP I was collecting while I was on EI following my surgery in July…  the letter had felt rather threatening, mentioning they might grab back a portion of what they had paid me while I was off work…

she had left a message during our tag game and it sounded like she was saying that, in fact, they had underpaid me, but that didn’t seem to go with the letter so I was confused…

usually I wouldn’t be home at 7:36, but because I had a 9 am doctor’s appointment I was still here…  she advised that they really did owe me money – $10 to be exact, and she would do all the necessary paperwork and a cheque would be sent, in due course… which means in a number of weeks…

it brought back memories of July, 2010, when I ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis and then had my gall bladder removed… we were planning to head to BC to visit Cyndi and Ron for our vacation the day after I landed in the hospital…

it was a very stress-filled time and George used his whole vacation time to sit by my bed and try to help me any way he could… I was very sick and for six weeks couldn’t eat or drink anything and was throwing up all the time… not really much fun to be around…  finally I was well enough to have the gall bladder surgery and a few days after the surgery it was our 40th wedding anniversary…

my beloved brought me 40 roses in a beautiful arrangement… I have just searched the computer but can’t find pictures of them… (6Jan13 – Cyndi sent me some pics of the flowers and I am added them here!).

all of that made me think back to the EI process we went through then… I had used up all my sick leave, vacation time and overtime before I applied for EI and got it fairly soon after applying… it came in very handy as I was off work for nearly three months and toward the end of that time Crystal got married…

this time when I knew I was going to have surgery I had been in touch with the EI folks and got instructions on what to do ahead of time…  so, like they told me, I applied for EI the day I went on sick leave and completed the necessary online forms… nothing went right from that moment… each time I would speak to someone, or complete a form, I would be advised to call… I would call only to get a recording saying call back, which I did, many times…  when I would finally get a human on the other end of the phone, they would say to do something completely different than the previous person had advised…  this went on throughout the whole time I was off and trying to collect the EI…  to make it even more confusing I was getting CPP as a survivor and then began collecting myself…

whew…  so it was good to have this woman contact me with the information that I hadn’t done anything wrong, or entered incorrect information… it was their little mistake…

so I will watch the mail for that $10 cheque…