The Phone

When I was a little girl, phones were still attached to the wall. They were usually black and had large dials and you would put your finger in the appropriate number hole, pull the dialer around to the end with your finger and then let go and it would roll back to the start position with a very satisfying tik, tik, tik and then you would dial another number... Until all of them were dialed...

....I still just didn't get into the phone. Sure, there was an occasional bout with a little boy I met at youth group or something where we would talk on the phone to the extent that Mommy Dearest would tell me that 3 hours really was long enough.... but for the most part, they would encourage me to talk on the phone, because I just didn't do it.

I have never liked phones. I was thrilled when cell phones got small and affordable, because I could cancel my home phone and move on to only having a cell. I liked that- convenient. I also felt kind of sick every time I came home and looked at the phone with its blinking light...Something to take care of.... Blink blink...Attention... Blink blink.

So now I have my cell phone. And I really don't talk on the phone much.

So yesterday MadDog and I drove to major city near us to get some records for a case and I was on the phone the entire freaking way talking to clients and solving problems and I turned to MadDog and said, "You know how I loose my cool when you call me on the weekends?" and naturally he did know when I lost my cool as its not really something one forgets, since it doesn't tend to happen so often, "This is why. These people suck all my energy and and I have none left when you call. I am sorry I get unhappy with you."

And then I remembered a few weeks ago when he called in the middle of a CLE and I texted him back to tell him I was in a meeting and asked if it was important and he-- oh yes, he CALLED BACK TO TELL ME IT WASN'T IMPORTANT which I learned after I SCRAMBLED OUT OF THE ROOM IN A PANICS BECAUSE DEAR LORD, WHY WOULD HE CALL BACK IF IT WASN'T IMPORTANT AND MADDOG REALLY KNOWS WHAT'S IMPORTANT AND WHAT'S NOT AND ****** yeah, it wasn't important. (Ok, so I did slam him about calling back when it wasn't important and then he made me feel bad because the texting just confused him and he didn't mean to upset me.) And then we had a conversation about texting and how nice it can be.

And then I remembered the "vacation" I had recently when he called six times a day.

and after telling them about this until I am blue in the face, and trying to teach them not to call me before noon, I realized I just have to dig deeper in the patience well and not loose my cool with him just because he called to tell me that they have so-and-so at Mike's House of Mostly Useless Merchandise at 9:30 AM on Saturday morning because its not him I'm pissed at, its the fifteen million other people who called last week to ask me when the Judge would grant their motion when I only submitted it two days ago, or call to tell me that got a new job when I GAVE them a sheet not even a week ago telling them they had to write and letter to the Court and tell them they got a job because I AM NOT A JUDGE.

Yeah, so that's my relationship with phones. I don't like phones and I'm not answering mine right now. So nanny nanny boo-booo.