I joke a lot about the fact that the only person who calls us on our home phone is A.M.--and then usually only to plan disk golf with Egg. I IM with my sisters most of the weekend, email everyone else. I don't absolutely hate talking on the phone but it never occurs to me to call anyone just to chat.
And yet, this weekend, I think I spent 14 hours on the phone. 3 to my friend in New York, 2 with my mom, and 9 with my friend in Wyoming. Divide each of those numbers by 2 and the numbers actually reflect reality. I used to talk for hours to two of my friends but we're not that close anymore so my the hours I'm putting in with the handset tucked under my chin have dropped off considerably. My chin is the better for it but not much else.
I hate to call to interrupt people's regularly schedule. And the time difference makes it hard to calculate when might be the best time to call. And Z the McFree is not particularly conducive to phone calling. Maybe now that so many of my friends have kids, none of us use the phone like we used to. And I get frazzled on the phone in ways I don't in person (though I do get frazzled in person--just in different ways). I make up words and laugh in the wrong places and say "cool" way too often. When I was on the job market, I had a phone interview for one job. I made myself dress up in my suit anyone just so I wouldn't fall prey to my own spiral-talking.
But perhaps some of the isolation I'm feeling this fall (I know, it's only really been fall for 2 days), could be alleviated by using the telephone. The electronic media does what it does but there's still something quiet about it.
2 comments:
That last sentence is true true true (the electronic media does what it does, etc.), and ditto also all the stuff about how I used to talk on the phone but now I barely do--would so much rather e-mail, text, chat. Why? I feel the phone is noisier, and I feel I can tolerate the noise of my life so much less these days--yet, yet, yet . . . I find myself feeling kind of lonely sometimes.
I ditto the quiet and the loneliness, and yet also the reluctance to use the phone.
And who is in Wyoming? Huh?
Anyway, you can call me anytime, especially when you're cooking just to describe it to me, so I can imagine eating it. We're eating way too much pasta in various forms and also items that don't require real preparation, like frozen chicken things and whatnot.
I only talk to my family on the phone, usually. I'm out of the habit. And yes, children make it difficult to use the phone for anything other than the arranging of playdates.
Post a Comment