The Paper Trail
(Alluded to in my post "Something was Missing" from 2006! This post was written around then, but got buried and just now came to light again.)
So usually when I go to mikvah, all of three people know about it: Me, my husband and the Shomeret. Okay, and the Bookkeeper/Treasurer, who is presumably the same person who deposits the checks. (Yes, I write a check. I don't make a habit of carrying cash.) I found out that they really do keep records when I got a phone call just after the end of the year, "reminding me" that I had one unpaid visit. We tracked down my check (the shomeret still had it, oops!) and I was glad that it had been a check and thus there was an actual paper trail to track down, and I also found out about how good their records are! So make it 4.
This time, however, well by the time I was done, there were just too many people involved! First off, the local mikvah was closed for repairs. They had sent out a notice to that effect, and while we may be a one-mikvah town, there are several other 1 and 2 mikvah towns within commuting distance, some of which I'd been to before.
Now, my husband and I are usually verrry circumspect about exactly when I'm going to mikvah. It was very unusual for me to consult others, but in trying to decide, I asked a friend her opinion, without letting on exactly which night it would be. Let's call her Amanda. (I was weighing the farther drive to a mikvah I'd been to before against the shorter commute to one that was totally unfamiliar.) Amanda had also only had experience with the farther one of the two I asked about, but offered to ask around on my behalf (with me remaining anonymous) because she knew people in the closer town. So she asked Betty and Cynthia. (I'm making these names up, obviously, in alphabetical order.)
That at least was useful: I found out it was by appointment only, no open hours. Calls for appointments are usually returned the day of the appointment, so members in this small community receive a calendar so that they can call the individual shomrot directly and not have to sit by the phone all day not knowing when the appointment will be. Cynthia had a copy of the calendar, but it stopped a day or two before I needed to go. This was all going from me to Amanda to Cynthia to Amanda to me, and took several rounds before Cynthia and the calendar were in the same place at the same time and I actually got the info, only to find out that the calendar had run out!
So I weighed the closer one being smaller and by appointment only against the farther one being familiar but having official "hours" where they took drop-ins too, and there might be a wait for a room. Once I realized that more than just the extra driving time was (possibly) involved, I decided to stick with the closer one, so I called and left a message. But I still wanted a chance of knowing when my appointment was at least earlier on that day, since the message said they would return all calls around 5pm the day of the appointment. I'm used to having an appointment the latest by a whole day before, so this was making me very nervous.
After I left the message, I realized that I knew people in that town myself, and needed to talk to two of them anyway, so I called (I'm Desde, so let's leave D and E for me and my husband) Francine and Gwen. Francine wasn't home, so I left a message about something else. I did actually get to talk to Gwen, and asked her if she had a copy of the new calendar yet. I was still being very careful to be vague about which day I needed to know for. It turned out that Gwen is one of the shomrot, but no, she didn't have a copy of the calendar. She added that Helen was in charge, and Isabel was her assistant, and she knew Isabel had the calendar because she had called her when she needed to switch which night she was on call, so she gave me both those numbers. Gwen also didn't tell me which night she'd been on call for, or which night she'd switched for.
By this time it was getting late, so after trying to call both Helen and Isabel and getting voice mail for each (I hung up, not having an alternate message that I could leave, and not wanting to leave my real message on what was obviously the family answering machine) I gave up for that day.
The next night, Gwen called me back. "I just got my new calendar in the mail, so I was going to call you, but then I checked the mikvah line," she said, "and you didn't tell me you were coming that night! That's the night I was on call for, and I switched with Josie! Let me give you Josie's number."
Meanwhile, Cynthia got her copy of the new calendar too, and forwarded the first week's worth of names and numbers to Amanda, who sent it on to me... and there was Gwen's name on it, who of course had switched with Josie after the calendar was printed.
So I finally talked to Josie, and we agreed on a time. And I suppose Betty and Cynthia don't know who I really am, Francine doesn't know that the message I left her wasn't the only reason I was calling, and Helen and Isabel don't know who hung up on their answering machines or why, although one of them or an additional person (Katie?) will have to deal with my check... but to me it still seemed like there were far more people involved than were supposed to be!
Direct link to discuss or comment on this post on our message boards