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Love You. Bye.

There are two types of phone calls that I'm quite comfortable with:
  1. a phone call with a clear purpose, a question to be answered and an agenda to accomplish.
  2. catching up with close friends and family if we haven't talked in awhile (a month or more).

Clearly, I am not really a phone person. It has to do with the ambiguity and uncertainty and the lack of visual cues to tell me when silence is awkward or if there is more conversation to be had...I just can't tell!

When I'm talking with my good friends and family, though, all conversations end the same way:

(quickly) Love you! Bye! Click.

It's habit to say I love you. A good habit, I think.


But I am constantly fearful that these words will jump over my tongue and out my lips before I can stop them, that before I can yell, NO, WAIT! I TAKE IT BACK! there will be the click of death, and I'll be left in silence, staring at a phone, realizing I inadvertently told a stranger or my boss or a male acquaintance something they were not prepared to hear.
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  1. Anonymous8:51 PM

    Ha, I know what you mean. With a slightly different twist; As a kid I used to rehearse both my nightly prayers and my answering machine messages to friends. I recall one distinct occasion where I left my friend this message: "...so give me a call when you get in. InJesusNameIpray Amen."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beth5:25 PM

    thom, i am picturing you leaving this message as an 8 year-old, identical to your 25 year-old self, and it is HILARIOUS.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mindy2:08 AM

    I agree - phone conversations are awkward!! Except with only maybe a handful of people.

    Who knows though, saying "I love you" accidentally to your boss or whoever might actually make their day... :)

    ReplyDelete

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