Dear So and So

[Crankin]

Oy.
I hear my own voice from year's past.

[indysteel]

Dear in-laws, when you call and no one answers, please just leave a message and your son when call back at his earliest convenience. Do not keep calling back at half hour intervals. The fact that you leave a message that merely states you will be calling back in a half hour is annoying. It's even more annoying that you leave a message stating the same thing with each call. I know you may find this difficult to hear, but he/we sometimes have other things to do than chat on the phone with you. You two need a hobby.

[limewave]

Dear in-laws, when you call and no one answers, please just leave a message and your son when call back at his earliest convenience. Do not keep calling back at half hour intervals. The fact that you leave a message that merely states you will be calling back in a half hour is annoying. It's even more annoying that you leave a message stating the same thing with each call. I know you may find this difficult to hear, but he/we sometimes have other things to do than chat on the phone with you. You two need a hobby.

That is annoying . . . along the same lines:

Dear Inlaws,
Do you really have to call every day the second DH walks through the door? You guys work together all day long, can't the work take a break for 60 minutes so DH can have a chance to see his kids for a few minutes before they go to bed? I know its difficult to believe, but "the business" will not fall apart if you wait an hour to call. Sheesh.

Dear DH,
Is it that hard to tell your dad you'll call him back after the kids are in bed? That's all I'm asking. The kids are only conscious for a handful of minutes by the time you get home (if you even get home before their bedtime). Can't you spend that precious time with them? It's really not that much to ask and it means the world to them.

~Limewave

[lph]

Dear DH,
Is it that hard to tell your dad you'll call him back after the kids are in bed? That's all I'm asking.

Oh, that sounds familiar... My always-helpful, always-polite dh is forever coming home late even if we've arranged a set time "because he met x in the door" or "got a phone call as he was leaving". I have never understood why it is so hard to just say "Sorry! I was just leaving. Can it wait until tomorrow?"

*sigh*

But then, I'm the cranky one who won't even pick up the phone if I don't feel like talking. Send me a message, that's why mobile phones were invented.

[indysteel]

But then, I'm the cranky one who won't even pick up the phone if I don't feel like talking. Send me a message, that's why mobile phones were invented.

In the last couple of years, I've gotten really hostile when it comes to talking on the phone. I used to sort of enjoy it on some level when I was single, but now I just see it as intrusive. I rarely call anybody and I rarely get calls myself. So, when the phone rings, I know it's likely my inlaws. Not that I begrudge them talking to their son, but they're just so dogged about it.

[lph]

It IS intrusive! When the phone rings, for some reason you're expected to drop anything else you might be doing, stop talking to whoever you're already talking to - who might even have taken the trouble to actually come over and visit in person, turn off any music you might be listening to or movie you might be watching, hop to it and take the phone, to talk to whoever fancied chatting with you right now, because they're bored in a car or something.

Heh, no wonder no-one ever calls me.

[OakLeaf]

That's the beauty of cell phones - ringtones specific to the caller. Even if you have a landline, you can forward all calls to your cell and get that functionality.

My phone lets me route numbers straight to voicemail. DH's phone doesn't, but this (.wav file) is the ringtone he's assigned to numbers from known spammers.

[Blueberry]

The BIL is gone. Yay! Ended up not staying with us because of the blanket pillow requirement (chose to stay in his friend's empty house instead). He did, however, insist that he wanted to take us to the most expensive restaurant in town because he wanted take us out (despite our protesting for more modest fare). He then stuck us with most of the bill. Nice. My DH has got to get better about telling him no - I can with my family, there's only so much I can do with him. The fact that his training plan is wrecked because said brother insisted on going and lifting (this is his current "fitness") and he didn't say no might help teach him a lesson. Thankfully with no long lasting damage.

On the phone issue - I definitely hear you all. I detest talking on the phone. If I don't recognize the number, I won't answer. We're in the process of getting rid of our home number, so right now it forwards to both of our cell phones. My mom will call my cell phone, call the home phone, call my cell phone again, and never leave a message. She then gets irritated when I don't automatically call her back based on the missed calls. She knows it rings the same phone. She always wants to talk at someone (I can say 10 words in a 30 minute conversation) when she's in the car. She hangs up when she gets to her destination, and never has time to talk to anyone when she would otherwise have to interrupt her life. I've gotten very good at not answering the phone - otherwise it's 30-45 minutes a day of her complaining. I feel for my grandmother - she starts and ends every day with my mother's calls, but won't not answer because she feels it would be rude. She doesn't enjoy the calls.

[Veronica]

I hate phones. I hate that my students have cell phones. Birthday cake boy who has the mom who texted him during class, was sending texts after school to one of my girls, which she ignored. She finally got sick of it and texted him to stop texting her, she was busy. He replied, "Suck it!"

How nice.

Veronica

[emily_in_nc]

I hate phones too, and ironically, I worked in the telecom industry for 25 years on telephone software -- things like call forwarding, call waiting, and all those "fun" things that phones can do now that they couldn't do many years ago.

Of the gals I worked with, most of us hated phones! Very strange. But yes, they are intrusive. Before email came along, they were much more necessary than today. I thank the computer gods for inventing email. And I thank the mobile phone gods for inventing texting. Anything to avoid an actual call!

This is one thing I love about Belize. Texting is pretty popular, but other than that people just don't use phones all that much. The only calls we ever get are either wrong numbers or notification that we have a package at the tiny airport cargo area. That's pretty much it. We make a call maybe once every two weeks to inquire about a package, make an appointment, or something. I have never made nor received a "social" call here. Everyone here communicates primarily on Facebook, it seems, to set up meetings, meals together, etc.

[indysteel]

I'm glad I'm not alone in my hate of the telephone. I rarely get phone calls anymore; they dropped off a lot after I married a couple years ago. My family never calls me (and I rarely call them). DH mostly gets calls from work and from his parents. For some reason, their phone calls get on my nerves, even when they don't involve repeated calls and voicemail messages.

I'm not sure why their calls to him bug me so much. Part of it, I'm sure is that I'm jealous that his parents pay at least some attention to him, as mine mostly just ignore me. But I think it goes beyond that. They just seem so obligatory on both ends, and that makes me kind of sad for everyone involved. My husband and his parents don't talk weekly because they actually have anything to say to one another or something meaningful to discuss (unless their weekly visit to Subway is "meaningful"). Rather, they appear to be driven because of some shared parent/adult child obligation. It would be nice if their conversations were born from something deeper and more genuine. It just seems really superficial to me. Maybe that's normal; I don't know. I have so little normal in my own familial relationships.

[spokewench]

The BIL is gone. Yay! Ended up not staying with us because of the blanket pillow requirement (chose to stay in his friend's empty house instead).

I must have missed something here? The Blanket Pillow Requirement? What is that????

[alexis_the_tiny]

Dear local postal service,

for the last time, might I remind you just how RIDICULOUS it is that I have to send an email to London to find out that my package is indeed in Singapore? All because you 'attempted to deliver' my parcel and yet somehow choose not to notify me in any way of the 'attempted delivery' and then let my stuff sit in your warehouse until I email the merchant in LONDON to find out all of the above. And by the way, your customer service rep's excuse that you do not leave delivery notifications like the regular mail service does when a failed delivery has occurred because you 'do not know if [I] have a mail box'? When you consider that this is a country where everyone with a legit mailing address has a mailbox within 1km of their residence? It's so ridiculously stupid I don't even know where to begin. *Headdesk*

Well, at least my wetsuit is here. I'm finally ready to race in Onset. It's a NICE wetsuit too. Yay.

[Blueberry]

I must have missed something here? The Blanket Pillow Requirement? What is that????

We're moving in just over a week. All the extras are packed and in a storage unit. He got quite ticked when we asked him to bring his own (we do still have sheets and a futon). He said he wouldn't have room in his car because he would have passengers (he ended up with none) and then traffic was too bad to swing by his condo and pick them up as he was leaving. Spoiled brat.

[indysteel]

Your BIL sounds like a tremendous piece of work, Blueberry. I'm glad you got rid of him, although who the heck "treats" someone to dinner and then sticks them with the bill? That's awful.