Snotty as it sounds, it's totally true. I don't really do voice mail/answering machine (do people still have those?!) messages. I listen to them, I reply to them, but I rarely, if ever, leave them. Usually, if I do it's because I've already called a couple of times and in these days of Caller ID, I might as well tell you WHY I just tried to call 5 times, even if it was a stupid reason.
There are reasons for me not leaving messages, though. It's really more for the sake of others. As you may have noticed, simply from reading the blog, I have a tendency to ramble. FyreGoddess IRL isn't all that much different than internet FG. Frankly, if anything, I think I'm more subdued and tactful on the internet. Seeing what you're about to say is a lot easier than running it through your head before the words come tumbling out of your mouth.
But we are talking about messages.
This tendency of mine to ramble comes out strongly when I start talking to the dead air of the recorder. I start off simple and with a purpose, but the runaway train that is my thought process just jumps the track suddenly and without me even realizing it.
"Hey, this is Fyre, I'm just calling to let you know [whatever I was supposed to let you know]. Thinking about it, though, I'm starting to think that maybe [alternative to the set plan] and you know, when I was talking to [random person] earlier, s/he suggested that I might want to [something completely unrelated]. Did I mention how much I enjoyed [doing that thing or having that conversation]. So, um, yeah, that's why I called.
OH YEAH! I almost forgot, and I wanted to make a point to mention to you that [irreverent comment about some strange thing only I would ever come up with]. And make sure that you tell someone else that [further irreverency]..."
And on and on and on.
Last night, Allison and I were talking about this phenomenon. It seems to be some kind of a Virgo trait because I was a victim (from another Virgo I know) and Allison was explaining to me about a friend of hers (go on, guess her sun sign) victimizing others. I quietly and embarrassedly (??) admitted that I, too, am one of those people.
These days I work to curb that sort of thing. I have two pat messages stocked up for such occasions. One is specifically for those few (ok, let's admit it, that ONE) friend(s) who never answer the damned phone. That message is simply "Dammit!" The other is for the few who have not yet been subjected to either the rambling voice mail or the speech about the rambling voice mail, simply stating "Yeah, I don't do messages."
What strikes me as odd, though, is how few people who get that second message actually take the time to explain to me that telling them about how I don't *do* messages is, in and of itself, me leaving them a message, pointless though it may be.
I think that if no one had caller ID, I would never leave any messages at all, except the ones I practice beforehand... and the ones where I just say "Dammit!"... Who am I kidding, if there was no caller ID I would leave way more messages, and I'd probably be a lot better about it.
As it stands, you know someone called. You know it was me. Would you rather I tie up your voice mail for 15 minutes or just call me back to find out whatever it was that I wanted in the first place?
~FG };^>
