A lesson on the importance of proper punctuation

In order for the story to make any sense I have to set it up a little bit of background.

I recently was rehired at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the hospital where I had worked during our first two years living in New York. As part of the rehire process I had to go in on Friday January 16th and complete some paper work, interview with my new coworkers, and get medical clearance. On that same day, Paul and Andrea returned from their vacation to California. I had spoken with Paul the night before and arranged to drop off their cat, Buttercup, who Ryanne and I had been watching while they were away. The paperwork and interviews took much longer than I anticipated. I received a text message from Paul letting me know that he and Andrea were home and available to pick up the cat.

I responded to Paul to let him know that I was running late, and would call him when I got home. Here is where we get to the importance of punctuation. The message that I sent to Paul was “I am still at the hospital ill call you when I get back”.

Paul read this very differently than I intended. He read “I am still at the hospital ill, call you when I get back”, when I had meant “I am still at the hospital, I’ll call you when I get back”.

My rather innocent text caused a panicked reaction, Paul being the good brother and the nurse practitioner that he is, responded “You said (at hospital ill) hope you meant (will) if you or Ryanne are ill please call me”

The moral of the story is, if you do not want to freak out family members make sure to use correct punctuation, even in text messages (especially if you have a pregnant wife). All of this could have been avoided with a simple apostrophe.