<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Phoney 

I am not the kind of person that would…

Can you tell I have phone issues?

I don’t know when or how this started, but I truly dislike speaking on the phone. My husband has informed me that most people know this about me as I make it very obvious by sounding short with them. Or bored. Or silent. (I obviously failed the telephone etiquette portion of "How To Win Friends and Influence People.")

Sorry. It’s nothing personal.

I know that when I was a teenager you could hardly keep me OFF the phone. In fact, I have some very fond memories of party lines and titillating teenage talk. (Yes, there were still party lines in the late 60’s and early 70’s…stop laughing.) I also recall that my friend Jane and I spent a very long stretch of 6th grade enchanted by phone conversations with “Bill” and “Private” whom I met accidentally one day by misdialing Jane’s phone number by one digit. This fascinated us for some reason, and soon all four of us were the best of phone friends, racking up the hours. I can’t remember what we talked about, but I am sure it was of the “who likes who” and “my teacher is worse than your teacher” variety. Loud farting was probably involved on the boys’ part and giggling on ours. This was the 70's version of IM-ing, I guess.

I think part of my phone issue is that I find it almost impossible to do only one thing at a time anymore. I am the master of multi-tasking. Or perhaps, more accurately, its slave.

It’s not that I don’t want to talk to anybody; it’s just that doing so usually prevents me from doing anything else. In fact, I find that I typically make most of my phone calls when I can combine the call with something else, such as folding laundry (the perfect phone call activity), emptying the dishwasher (too noisy, really, but I do it anyhow), or cooking (sometimes dangerous, but generally OK). I have even started to call people when I walk the dog (not fair to him) or drive places (not fair to other drivers).

I am not the kind of person that would…

e-mail this writer

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?