Phone Etiquette

Some people have road rage. I have phone rage. I get really annoyed with wrong numbers, specifically rude wrong numbers – as in people who call in the middle of the night, people who call and say “Who is this?” or people who just hang up. Grrrr!

Since the invention of caller ID, I don’t just let these types of things go. Yeah, yeah, I know. I can just hear the voice of my hypnotherapist telling me to rechannel my energy into something positive.

Well, this isn’t so easy when you’re having a bad day. Yesterday, I was busy with work, busy with kids, busy, busy, busy. I finally had about two seconds to myself to sit down in the afternoon about 5:00. And the phone rang. *sigh* The area code was the same as my parents, but I didn’t know the number. I answered it, and was greeted by a long pause, then a voice that said, “Hello?” I said, “Yes?” And the rude voice said, “Do I have the wrong number?” I said, “Well, how am I supposed to know.” And they hung up.

Dammit! How freaking rude! Is it so difficult to say, “I’m sorry. I must have the wrong number.” Apparently, it freaking is.

I immediately hit *69. When the person answered, I said, “I believe someone from this number just called me and hung up.” The rude woman said, “No. Someone from your number called me. I was calling you back.”

What the f*ck ever! Normally, I may have blamed it on my children, but Eli was occupied on the computer, and Georgia was asleep. I said, “I highly doubt that. And next time you call someone, have the decency to say, ‘I’m sorry’ instead of just hanging up like this,” and I hung up.

The woman called back. I picked up and immediately hung up without saying anything. Great! Now evil, rude woman was harassing me.

That should have been it. Except that for some reason I was thinking her number seemed familiar. Not a lot of people other than my parents call me from that area code. Then I remembered that I was in touch last week with a woman about her Passion Party order.

Oh, crap. I went to my office and looked up her order form. Sure enough, it was her number. Great. Not only was I a bitch, I was a bitch to a woman who placed a $250 order from me.

I’m holding out some hope that it was someone else calling from that number and not her. And whoever it was, she still called, hung up and was rude. So, my bitchiness was justified, right? Right?!

Okay, so maybe I need to work on my phone etiquette just a tad. Hmph.