There are so many weird things that people do on the phone. Whether it’s talk to fast, talk to much, awkward silences, or the 1-2-3 principal, I try to stay away from the phone as much as possible. The funny thing is I don’t have a problem talking on the phone. If you call me and I don’t pick up it’s not because I don’t like talking but I don’t feel like talking at that particular time. For instance, when I was driving to OCMD I was getting calls from people back home and like a dick, I just let it ring. What am I supposed to say?
“What are you doing this weekend?”
“Yeah I’m not around this weekend”
“Oh, well, let’s talk about the weather…”
So I just don’t pick up and avoid it all. I answer the phone non-stop at work and talk to people all day so the phone isn’t a foreign object to me. The one thing that bothers me at work is when people call up and they obviously know who they are calling but they expect me to guess who they are. They call, I pick up, and the first thing they say is “Hey Tom.” Now I could say “who is this” and sound rude I don’t know them or I could just take a shot in the dark and insult them if I don’t know their voice. If you are calling someone just tell them who it is first. I know this isn’t a cell phone situation where you usually know ahead of time who you are talking to but still.

This brings me to the 1-2-3 principal. If I’m calling you, you pick up and say “hello”, do I immediately go into what I’m trying to say or do I have to say hello back. If I say hello back then it puts it on the other person to find something to say even though I was the person who had the reason to call. So usually when someone picks up, they say hello, I just say “hey, I’m calling because” rather then give it a chance to get weird.

My biggest problem with the phone is disappointing people. Say someone is calling me to do something that I don’t want to do and they give me a buzz. I sometimes prefer just ignoring the call rather then telling them “I don’t want to do it.” Once I pick up the phone I’m getting myself into a situation where I’m going to be peer pressured into doing something I don’t want to. Now if I was strong willed and didn’t succumb to peer pressure I would answer every time. Sadly, my social skills have a long way to go.

This is the type of wacky nonsense that goes through my head. I analyze and then over-analyze everything. I think I read people really well. Meaning that I have a good understanding of the principals they live by. I think because of this I’m pretty good at getting along with everybody. There are very few people I can’t get along with and for those people they usually did something stupid that makes me judge their character. For instance, this one kid in college BBall intramurals never took himself out of the game. If he was dominant I’d understand but he was just an average Joe. After that I never liked him. I’m a firm believer that a player should be cognizant of other player’s playing time. Selfishness stops you dead in my book. Jesus, I’m really rambling now. I don’t even know why I wrote Jesus but it just popped in my head and I wrote it. Then I just guessed if there should be a comma after Jesus. I’m going to end this before it goes too far.