What happened between my teenage years and now? At 16, I had
my own phone line with my very own number put in my room. At 19, I was dating
someone who lived a few hours away, and we’d wait until 11 p.m. – when rates
went down – to talk on the phone. In my early 20s, I lived a few states away
doing an internship at a newspaper and my phone bill for those summer months?
Astronomical!
Now? Hell no, I won’t talk!
The anti-social stance came somewhere after having my first
child. It’s extremely difficult to be on the phone when you have little ones
crying in the background. It doesn’t matter how independent they seem, the
minute you get on the phone, some sort of crisis will take place. Absolute
chaos erupts. It would be at that moment when she’d decide to do something like
climb the piano or dive off the back of the sofa.
And then came not just writing but publication. Suddenly
with two children, my time alone, focused, creative & alert, became even more precious. It’s a diamond, oil, champagne and caviar all rolled up into
scarce precious hours.
Sigh. The phone rings, breaking any train of thought, eating
up time and sometimes it’s absolutely impossible to get back.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to talk to my husband
or my dad, or a single friend off work from their one job, or a student who
didn’t read the question asked me and is freaking out about my answer, or work
who could wait until the next day in the office to ask me whatever
not-important question just surfaced.
Most of the time, that annoying ringing signifies a recorded
politician who wants me to vote for something, or a home improvement company we
requested to take us off the list 500 hundred-billion times! *Grrr*
People say that we’ve lost that personal connection with
email and social media. But I’d much rather send a two-sentence message than
spend 20 minutes on the phone rehashing the same thing.
I’ve morphed into the Grinch-Oscar all-tumbled into one:
Don’t Call Me – Maybe. Unless, it’s really, really good and you know I made my
upcoming book deadline!
Now back to working on book 4 of The Vampire, The Witch
& The Werewolf series, titled, The Wolfe Pack.
How about you? Are you a social, talking, butterfly?
Yes I am ;) and I love to talk, tweet, or text ! I do prefer to talk over all of those even though most people now days prefer to text I miss not talking and having FULL sentenced conversations with people, but then I don't have deadlines. Best of luck with book four - xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteTotal LOL Dawn. It's not you, I swear! Book 4 is coming along nicely -- thank goodness. *fingers crossed* it keeps flowing but I've been wanting to tell this story for a while!
ReplyDelete((hugs))
I hate telephone interruptions when I'm writing. One or two calls isn't so bad, but some days it seems like the phone rings off the hook. My husband and I are having a house built, so many of the calls are house-related and important, so I have to take them.
ReplyDeleteBoth DH and I find the phone intrusive. In the evening when it rings, we'll argue: "It's for you." "No, it's for you."
There are people I do enjoy talking to once I answer the phone, but the initial interruption is not welcome. I know it's very common, but I truly don't understand people who have their cell phones welded to their ears.
The phone is a necessary annoyance to me.
Cara,
ReplyDeleteI totally feel your pain. We have certain *rings* for the home phone, so we know when family members are calling, uhm. Plus the whole caller id thing now.
I don't know how we can vote for a Do Not Call registry via the government, yet they are allowed to make those robo calls for voting?