Thursday, July 19, 2007
"My Bitches" and Edwin Jordan
A few years ago, when I still had my first cellphone, the old-school 5150 Nokia, I u.sed to get a regular call from the same number ALL THE TIME. It was an (800) number so I never answered it, but I became intrigued enough to program the number into my phonebook so that this number would come up as "my bitches". Whenever that call came in, I would be able to announce, "hey, 'my bitches' are calling!"
"My bitches" NEVER left a message.
One morning, it was either a Saturday or a Sunday, "My Bitches" called 5 times before 9am. I ignored it 4 times. On the 5th time, I answered, "Why won't you stop calling me!" I actually shouted it, and I regretted it immediately. But by talking to the person on the other end of the line, I found out that it was Omaha Steaks, calling to sell me some meat. I actually had previously bought some gifts from Omaha Steaks, so they legitimately had my number, but their technique was very suspect. A legitimate company should either not repeatedly call you or they should leave a message.
Today I got another call from the same (301) number (local Maryland) that I get a call from every day. The difference between these more recent calls and the calls from "my bitches" is that these (301) callers always leave a message, but they never say where they are calling from or who they are calling on behalf of.
The message is always the same - the caller is looking for "Edwin Jordan", even though my message has always said that you have reached MY voice mail... NOT Edwin Jordan's.
The reason that I decided to write this post is because of the rush I got from finally answering the phone and yelling at "my bitches". I feel that day is coming for the (301) number as well. I'll post an update...
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A few years ago, when I still had my first cellphone, the old-school 5150 Nokia, I u.sed to get a regular call from the same number ALL THE TIME. It was an (800) number so I never answered it, but I became intrigued enough to program the number into my phonebook so that this number would come up as "my bitches". Whenever that call came in, I would be able to announce, "hey, 'my bitches' are calling!"
"My bitches" NEVER left a message.
One morning, it was either a Saturday or a Sunday, "My Bitches" called 5 times before 9am. I ignored it 4 times. On the 5th time, I answered, "Why won't you stop calling me!" I actually shouted it, and I regretted it immediately. But by talking to the person on the other end of the line, I found out that it was Omaha Steaks, calling to sell me some meat. I actually had previously bought some gifts from Omaha Steaks, so they legitimately had my number, but their technique was very suspect. A legitimate company should either not repeatedly call you or they should leave a message.
Today I got another call from the same (301) number (local Maryland) that I get a call from every day. The difference between these more recent calls and the calls from "my bitches" is that these (301) callers always leave a message, but they never say where they are calling from or who they are calling on behalf of.
The message is always the same - the caller is looking for "Edwin Jordan", even though my message has always said that you have reached MY voice mail... NOT Edwin Jordan's.
The reason that I decided to write this post is because of the rush I got from finally answering the phone and yelling at "my bitches". I feel that day is coming for the (301) number as well. I'll post an update...
Sunday, July 01, 2007
DOING WHAT I DREAD: Week 1
Saturday, June 3oth
What: helping my wife's brother's family move
Beginning this week, each week I am going to try to focus on a task, some task; suck it up and do something that I don't want to do. Depending on the activity, it may be something I am dreading, something I don't want to do, or something that I have just been too lazy to do. It may be a work task that I've been putting off, a house project that I never finished or just a blog post that isn't writing itself. The point is that I need to address my laziness, my selfishness and my propensity for not finishing what I start. Then I will blog about it here.
This weekend, my wife and I drove from Arlington to Richmond to help her brother move. Her brother has two sons, ages 6 years and 6 months, which limited how much help his wife could be. My father in law recently injured two fingers in a lawnmower mishap, limiting his usefulness (as it turned out, not really).
We left Arlington at around 9am, but because this is the weekend before the 4th of July, there was A LOT of traffic! It took us 3 hours, about twice as long as it should have.
Most of the moving truck was packed when we arrived - our usefulness would be unloading the truck at the new house.
The thing about her brother is that he has SO MUCH SHIT! He owns a lot of books, which are heavy but he also used to collect comic books, which he still has; death metal tapes which he still has; vinyl which he still has and CDs which he still has. This is the second time I've moved all that crap, although he has apparently had a lot of success getting rid of some of that stuff on ebay.
He was very thankful and appreciative but the biggest thanks came from my father-in-law, he of the lawn-mowered fingers. He said, "I know that you helped Ryan, but more importantly, you helped me."
Next time:
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Saturday, June 3oth
What: helping my wife's brother's family move
Beginning this week, each week I am going to try to focus on a task, some task; suck it up and do something that I don't want to do. Depending on the activity, it may be something I am dreading, something I don't want to do, or something that I have just been too lazy to do. It may be a work task that I've been putting off, a house project that I never finished or just a blog post that isn't writing itself. The point is that I need to address my laziness, my selfishness and my propensity for not finishing what I start. Then I will blog about it here.
This weekend, my wife and I drove from Arlington to Richmond to help her brother move. Her brother has two sons, ages 6 years and 6 months, which limited how much help his wife could be. My father in law recently injured two fingers in a lawnmower mishap, limiting his usefulness (as it turned out, not really).
We left Arlington at around 9am, but because this is the weekend before the 4th of July, there was A LOT of traffic! It took us 3 hours, about twice as long as it should have.
Most of the moving truck was packed when we arrived - our usefulness would be unloading the truck at the new house.
The thing about her brother is that he has SO MUCH SHIT! He owns a lot of books, which are heavy but he also used to collect comic books, which he still has; death metal tapes which he still has; vinyl which he still has and CDs which he still has. This is the second time I've moved all that crap, although he has apparently had a lot of success getting rid of some of that stuff on ebay.
He was very thankful and appreciative but the biggest thanks came from my father-in-law, he of the lawn-mowered fingers. He said, "I know that you helped Ryan, but more importantly, you helped me."
Next time:
- house projects
- fix the broken dresser drawer
- finish the tile grouting cleanup that I never did
- work tasks
- writing
- blog posts
- The Novel
- various short stories
