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.

BEEEEEEEP!!!!

I have this AWESOME new technology that I’m dying to share with people. It’s seriously a life-changer.

You see, sometimes, I get really busy, so I can’t always answer my phone. Other times, I just don’t recognize the number, so I don’t want to waste time/money on somebody who very likely could be a wrong number.

Anyway, there’s this great new thing called “voice mail.” It’s FANTASTIC. It’s like a personal answering service without having to deal with a machine. I can even record my own voice so that people who call me can hear me!

Problem is, I don’t get to use it much. For every 10 calls I miss, usually only 1 results in the use of this amazing technology. The other 9 must be worried that the message won’t get to me or something, so they just keep calling. And calling. And calling.

If you’re one of the people who tries to call me sometime, and I’m too busy to answer, please make use of this technology. I promise you’ll like it!

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Hang Them on a Telephone Wire

In this day and age, it’s still unethical to lie, right?

If you’re Judeo/Christian, you believe in the 10 commandments, which mean you don’t bear false witness, right?

If you’re Muslim and believe in the Qur’an, you believe that liars will be punished in the judgment, right?

It’s still pretty much a universally-accepted moral that it’s bad to lie, right?

THEN WHY AM I SURROUNDED BY SO MUCH DISHONESTY IN MY LIFE?!

I feel like I’m living in a soap opera, where everybody’s lives are shaped by the lies they tell and the lack of consequences for doing so.

I’m fed up with it - especially in my local religious culture, where so many people pride themselves on being so honest and morally upright. I’m not angry at my church, but I’m sick of the hypocrisy with some of its members when it comes to being honest. It seems as though telling half-truths completely pass as honesty now. It seems like several people I know believe that it’s okay to lie through their teeth as long as it covers their butts if they’ve been caught doing/saying something bad.

And I’ve had it.

I was having a conversation with someone today, and the topic of dishonesty came up. There are a couple of people I’ve been having to deal with over the last few years who have proven to be pathological liars. I started distancing myself from them, and one told a mutual acquaintance that he/she was shocked that I wasn’t such a close friend anymore because we had sat down and worked things out. This never happened, and it became the final lie to which I’ll subject myself with said person. I explained that while I can forgive someone for lying, I only have 4 cheeks to turn, and I’m not putting myself into a situation where I can be lied to again.

I’ve been lied to by so many people recently that I’m starting to just assume that most people are lying to me at any given time.

One of my favorite things that has been happening within the last year is people telling my wife one thing and me another. I don’t know what kind of messed up relationships others have with their significant other, but we happen to share everything. Do people really think that if they lie to one/both of us, we won’t compare stories? It has happened with other family members recently, too. FYI – if your family relationships are functional, then they they probably have open lines of communication. Don’t test this in a negative way.

I hate it. I feel like I’m regressing to when I was a skeptical, untrusting teenager. Throughout my 20s, I’ve been gaining a better view of the world. I’ve been embracing all kinds of people, I’ve been trying to get lots of different life experiences, I’ve been looking at the world through rose-colored glasses.

I’m done.

Here’s the deal: if you lie around me, I’m going to call you on it. Especially if it involves me or someone I care about. If you try to frame me for being dishonest, I won’t just ignore it. I’ll shout it from the rooftops.

Honesty is the best ONLY policy.

Current (and Not-So-Current) Peeves

I opened Windows Live Writer to blog for the first time in months, and I found this unpublished post from a LONG time ago. I’m going to just add to the end.

• People who are REALLY nice to somebody’s face, to the point of making them believe that they’re good friends, and then say awful things behind their backs: this is why I don’t go out of my way to be nice to people.
• Students with smart mouths who are dishonest in order to cover their tracks
• People who cause Lauren stress
• People who try to tell Lauren how to do wedding stuff
• People who make a huge deal about how they expect a wedding invite, but don’t give you their address and won’t respond to a Facebook message requesting it
• OOH! People who finally respond when you send them a text asking for their address, who then slam the fact that your message over Facebook wasn’t “special” enough
• People who offer to help with wedding stuff and then either back out or sit and complain/whine the whole time they’re helping
• People who don’t say “please” or “thank you”
• People who CONSTANTLY expect people to do things for them
• One-way friendships
• People who respond to texts/voicemails on THEIR time
• Deceased grandparents who insist on haunting me – I’m already being followed by Eleanor
• The lack of communication between the rest of the faculty/administration at my school and me
• People who insist on turning right from the middle of the street – WHEN THERE’S A RIGHT TURN LANE

Some things are current peeves still/again. And now the new stuff:

• Watching Will & Grace reruns and remembering how much I was irritated by Woody Harrelson’s guest arc
• Girls that are less than a year away from turning 30 who act like they’re 13
• Said girls treating Lauren like dirt
• Having to wear long pants every day to school
• Feeling like I have to babysit techies
• The weather (don’t tell me that Utah is always this weird in April. It’s not. It CAN be, but it’s not ALWAYS this bad)
• Never having/making time to blog
• Never having/making time to write my missionary brother-in-law
• Finally making time to write a blog, and getting so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open