Here’s a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares

I’m getting really sick of phones. Not phones themselves, because there are some pretty nifty phones out there nowadays. Not mine, of course. I hate my own phone. It’s crappy and butt-dials people a lot.

What I really mean to say is that I’m getting really sick of people’s phone habits.

If you know me well, you know that I’m not a big fan of talking on the phone. I would much rather text, communicate online, or heaven forbid- talk in person.

Lately, though, my dislike of phone habits has gotten more along the lines of disgust.

I’ve blogged about this topic before (see here), but it only seems to be getting worse.

The worst offenders seem to be the members of my ward. We all know I hate my ward, but many of the people in it are apparently unfamiliar with voicemail. I’ll miss a call from someone, Google the number, find it’s someone in my ward, and then figure “if they really wanted to talk to me, they would have left a message.” Then they call again. And again. And again. Two weeks ago, somebody from my ward needed something and called no less than 4 times before finally leaving a message. Almost every time he/she called, I was in the middle of a rehearsal or a performance.

My other major phone peeve lately is the fact that people don’t respect private time. I grew up in a house where we didn’t call anyone after 9 PM, unless we KNEW it was someone who would be up and wouldn't mind. We also didn’t call anyone before 9 in the morning, unless it was an emergency. I feel like that’s a pretty generous rule. 9-9: 12 hours to focus on rest. I usually try to follow that, except in the case of family & friends who I know I can call until 10 or so.

We don’t have a landline, so Lauren and I leave our phones on all night in case of emergency. Since we got married, I haven’t gotten one single emergency late night call. I have, however, received countless late night chatty calls, early morning phone calls, late night texts, and texts WELL before 9 AM.

A few weeks ago, somebody from my ward needed me to help with something on a Sunday, so he/she called me on a Saturday night after 10 PM. I was in a play and didn’t get the message (surprise! They actually utilized voicemail) until even later, so I didn’t return the call. The next morning, he/she called back at 8 AM. I wasn’t pleased.

In the last week alone, I’ve gotten at least 1 non-essential text before 9 AM on more days than not.

If it keeps up, I’m going to have to start turning my phone off at night. Which stinks, because I know that the second I do, one of my nieces or nephews is going to get into a scuffle with a werewolf, vampire, or zombie, and I’ll be the only one in my family who knows what to do. And since my phone will be off, I won’t be there to help, and my family will become a real life Twilight. Gag.

If you think that this is a passive/aggressive attack on you, it probably is. At least, it’s best to assume so, because then you’ll stay off my poop list. I’ve been pretty positive on my blog lately, and I don’t want to get back into the habit of being so negative all the time, so DON’T MAKE ME.