Trying to contact someone by phoning them at home: What a bloody primitive 20th century way of communicating.
And since this is Aya, who is not someone I call regularly, and since I have no “business” excuse to call her, there is a certain awkwardness to this. So I rehearse what to say to the answering machine, and as I dial I also think of an opening line if she answers herself.
But then her mom picks up.
(at least I think it was her mom. It certainly sounded like a mom.)
Out, maybe back in the morning, leave a message? Err, no, thanks. Ulp.
Of course by the time I get myself to call the next day she’s already left, and I get the mom again.
What have I learned from this? That he who doesn’t leave a message the first time loses twice:
First, his message is delayed by yet another day, and second, he really has to go through the awkwardness of actually leaving a message, just to prove (if only to himself) that he wasn’t intimidated to do so the first time.
Ah. I also had an observation about people without mobile phones, which are rapidly turning out to be the 21st century’s equivalent of people who live without electricity or running water. It’s that they choose to spend time with the people who are actually there rather than with the people who aren’t.
Another observation is that all these people (Aya, Tarzan, etc.) don’t have cars. A mobile phone is a lifesaver when your transportation is something as unreliable as my own car, which broke down three times in three weeks this September.
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