You said What???

Sometimes, I am just amazed at people.  Twice today, I have almost done a double-take and said, "You just said what???"
The first was this morning.  My partner in crime, Carolyn McAllister, and I were preparing to present a workshop on Communication and Motivation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  A couple of participants had come in the room and taken seats and Carolyn was talking to them, while I stood at the door and greeted the new ones coming in.  Carolyn asked one teacher, "How are you enjoying the conference so far?" to which the teacher replied, "I'm not.  It hasn't been good at all."  Carolyn replied, "Oh no! What haven't you liked?"  The teacher said, "I really don't want to talk about it.  I don't want to talk."  Ummmmmm......did you realize you just came to a workshop on communication, I wondered, when Carolyn told me the news.  Oh dear......  The good news is she brightened up and even shared and talked with her tablemates within the next hour.  Success!!!!!
The next is even more baffling, I think.  I traveled to Birmingham, AL where I rented a car to drive south for two hours.  When I got in the car, I was happy to see it had Sirius/XM radio in it.  Yea!  Oh no, I realized.  It had it but it wasn't enabled on the car.  Hmmmm.....what to do?  I called customer service and said, "Hey, my husband and I are long-time customers of Sirius/XM.  I am traveling and am without my own Sirius subscription in my car.  BUT....I have a rental car that just needs its radio activated.  Can you activate it for me for just one day?"  The rep said, "I'm sorry, I can't do that."  "Oh no!" I replied.  "Why not?"  "I don't know", she said, but I will get you to customer care where they can tell you why".  Alrighty, I thought.  There is still hope. 
She patched me through to customer care.  A remarkably similar sounding woman answered, I told her my plight, and she said, "I will check to see if we can do that for you."  She came back on the line and said, "I'm sorry we can't, unless you want to transfer your subscription to this car."  "No" I said.  "That sounds dangerous, as it often takes me a while to get customer service and I don't want to be out my own subscription when I get home tomorrow night.  How about just activating this radio for 24 hours as a trial subscription?" 
She thought and thought......and thought and thought.  Then she said, "I'm just so sorry.  I can't activate the radio for 24 hour trial period.  I could only activate it for a trial for 3 months."  You said WHAT???  I didn't say this, I only thought it.  What I did say was, "Oh, okay, I understand.  Well, that's better than nothing.  Please let's go ahead and activate the rental car's radio for 3 months, then, if you can't do it for 24 hours." 
You're welcome, next National Car Rental renter. 
Just for today, listen for interesting things people say!!
Happy Co