About Me

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Delta, British Columbia, Canada
I took very early retirement from teaching in '06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring. As a voracious reader, I have many books waiting in line for me to read. Tell me I shouldn't read something, and I will. I'm a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience. I'm looking forward to traveling more some day. I enjoy walking, cycling, water aerobics & and sports like tennis, volleyball, and fastpitch/baseball. I'm just getting into photography as a hobby and I'm enjoying learning all the bits and bobs of my digital camera. My family is everything to me and I'm delighted to be the mother of two girls and the Gramma of a boy and a girl. I may be a Gramma, but I'm at heart just a girl who wants to have fun.

Friday, November 27, 2009

One Way Telephones

I'm wondering how many of you know people like this.

You've been thinking about them, realizing you haven't heard from them for quite a while, so you finally give them a call.

You're greeted with something like the following:
"Oh my gosh! How ARE you? I haven't heard from you for so long I thought maybe you'd disappeared off the face of the earth!"

Or this:

"Oh HI! I thought you'd died!"

I had the lovely misfortune to have this happen to me twice in the last few days.

Honestly, do these people own phones that only receive calls? Can they not call out?

I replied to both these people, "Gee, does your phone not call out? You could call me once in a while, too, you know."But this type of person never gets it...they simply continue on yakking about themselves and just briefly ask how I am. *sigh*

Makes me want to reach through the phone and strangle them with the cord...except there's no cord on phones these days. ARGH!

6 comments:

nancygrayce said...

Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. I stopped calling an old friend after i realized that I was the one keeping things going.....I never heard from here again unless I happened to run into her and then I got the "I never hear from you anymore!"

aims said...

I don't think I've ever had one of those calls - that would be - disturbing.

Just letting you know - I worked at that strip bar for almost 15 years. I did it for the money. Like - a new car every couple of years and I bought myself a house. All on my own. It was good money back in the
70's and 80's. Best money I ever made actually.

I learned a lot. And I don't regret ever working there because for me it was always a focus on how much I could make in tips every single day. The girls were just background noise. The men were too after a while.

I also made some incredibly good friends there. Some of the customers - well - they have a special place in my heart for just being gentlemen. They were rare - but they came every day and had a draft or two in my section.

One gentleman was dying of cancer near the end of my time there and he gave me a diamond ring to remember him by.

People like that are hard to find.

On the other hand - I also met some pretty bad characters and I also met The Beater there. So good with bad - like everything I guess.

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

Oh yes I know the feeling ...I stopped phoneing a few because of that reason :-(

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Yes, I know the feeling too. Sadly, I've learned that a friendship, by its very nature, cannot be one-sided and I've had to let people like this go.

Shrinky said...

Is it any wonder you would rarely call them? Some people do not want friends, they want an audience! At least if they are on the other end of the telephone you can invent an excuse to cut them short "Ops, doorbell - gotta' go!" (Smile)

I have a neighbour who insists upon foisting herself upon me. I have NEVER rang her doorbell in nine years of living here. I don't know why she camps out on my doorstep - she hates my dog, dislikes my kids and it never crosses her mind to ask me how I am doing! All she wants to do is to trash people to me, any mutual friends, even strangers,or to tell me how wonderful and long suffering she is. I KNOW she trashes me too, why would she break the habit of a lifetime? It's very awkward because our children are friends, and I don't want any bad blood between us. I think all of us know someone like this - they are users, wherever possible it's best just to cut the ties completely.

SDCrafts said...

I too have had to realise when to let friendships die their natural death and know I am as 'guilty' as others of bringing this about. I think it is best to think of 'seasons of life' and know there is a time for one person and a time for another, and others last right though all our lives.