Isn't it all about the loooove this month? It is, after all, February. Home of the much anticipated and dreaded Valentine's Day. Let's face it, VD, can really suck the energy out of the room if you're not feeling it. Been there, done that. And even if there is a guy dutifully orbiting around you as he should, the whole thing can really just set him up to fail. You always have a friend, who has a boyfriend, who has, like, 10 older sisters. And THAT guy gets it right simply as a survival technique. His sisters would kill him slowly and painfully if he screwed up your friend's VD. Then there's your boyfriend. Sisterless and alone. Consulting with no one but the dude at 7-11 who tells him it's a Great Idea to give you a chocolate rose (you know, the one's that have been on the counter since last year), a Monster and a bag of Corn Nuts.
But I digress, because I don't really want to talk about love in a relationship. I want to talk about my love of Caller ID. Possibly the best invention right after post-it notes. (Do NOT refer to them as sticky notes, I don't do generic names around here.)
Caller ID means I never have to talk to anyone without knowing who they are first. I figure it evens the playing field. After all they know they're calling you, so why shouldn't you know too? So if you call me, and think you are all tricky, with your Private Caller or Unknown Caller screen? I don't answer. Well, maybe if I recognize your Unknown Caller number, I answer. But these days with every number programmed into my BlackBerry, how many phone numbers do I know? Ask me however, the phone number of my 11 best friends from high school, and I can dial each and every one. Some things last forever. It's what I'll do when I'm really old and have forgotten everything. I'll be calling those numbers, looking for my old friends until the nice nurse takes the phone away.
Here's how it rolls if you call the house, have Private Caller, and leave a message...a neighbor of ours, who we Really Like, but is a man, and probably doesn't do cell phones, because he's a guy with a very nice, balanced, Normal Wife and Kids who regularly answer the phone, called for my husband and left a message. Last week sometime. Thursday I think. Yesterday I happened to pick up a house receiver for some reason, and heard that special little jingle Verizon gives you letting you know you have Voice Mail. So I checked it. Among the other 9 messages from telemarketers and the library notifying me my book was in, was the VIM (Very Important Message) from our Awesome Friendly Neighbor. Probably wanting to know if Bill wanted to golf Sunday. Only it was already Tuesday. Of the next week. See what I'm saying. It happens. And it's not really our neighbor with the problem, it's me. I recognize that and I apologize. I'm a work in progress.
So, here's the deal. If we chat regularly, you already know this about me: I check ID's more scrupulously than a bar that just got busted for letting in underage girls in mini skirts. You also know that calling the house phone and leaving a message is pretty much like giving a shout out to space. Not only are most of the ringers off all the time, but I also forget to check for messages days and sometimes weeks at a time. We have voice mail, so no flashing light from my 1984 model answering machine. No visual clue that someone has left a message. We went over my Right Brained visual orientation yesterday so this should not surprise you. My husband, Mr. Left Brain, of course should check messages out of his steadfast left brain ways. But he commutes 3 hours a day and that eats his brain cells.
Why do we even have a house phone you ask??? 911. I have a pool. I have kids. Fires, accidents, and drowning can happen. Though, thankfully, never to us so far. But you never know. If we're having a Major Emergency, I want to somebody to be able to pick up the receiver, dial 911, and know the Fire Department already has us pegged on the GPS while the response vehicles are firing up.
So call me on my cell.
Of course I don't always answer that either.
But it does have a blinking light, and a 'missed call' screen...
xxxooo,
~S
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