So because of a teacher's inservice today, Biggest Saditty had no school. I considered leaving him at the daycare portion of the school where Middle and Itty Bitty spend their days but decided to take a vacation day and spend some time with him. For nearly two years, it was just he and I against the world and I felt kind of nostalgic when I thought about those days. So anyway, we dropped the two babies off and headed to our first destination--Cracker Barrel. We were seated and our drinks soon arrived. As I dunked my tea bag into the hot water, I watched as Biggest peered at the peg game, trying to figure out the dynamics before he invited me to play. My phone began to ring. I looked at the caller ID and sent the caller to voicemail. She called right back. Again, I sent her to voicemail. As he and I began to play the peg game, a text message pinged from my phone. "Hey, call me back. It's urgent." I excused myself from the game and opened the small box of crayons and suggested that he color the picture as I returned the phone call. After he embarked on coloring, I dialed my friend back.
Me: Hey. I got your text message. What's up?
Her: Oh, are you at work?
Me: No, I am off today. Biggest and I are in Cracker Barrel on a date. Our food should be here soon.
Her: Forreal? That's nice. But lemme tell you about....................................
So, after a few minutes of her ranting on about her latest personal emergency, I started to wonder what part of the 'emergency' was so urgent. Now, keep in mind that she knows that I rarely ever get one on one time with any of my kids and if I am not mistaken, I had JUST told her that I was doing just that. She went on and on about one of her issues that we are constantly discussing. It goes like this---she presents me with a problem. I give her a solution. She sits on the phone and gives me rebuttals and tells me why my solutions are wrong. You guessed it---it's a waste of time to give this person any type of advice. But anyway...
I grab a crayon and start coloring with Biggest and she is still going on and on but stops occassionally to say, "Are you still there? Are you listening?" I grunted an affirmative response and she kept on. So our food came and I loudly asked the waitress for Tabasco and another tea bag. She kept talking. I asked Biggest if he needed help cutting his bacon, she kept talking. I started chewing and smacking loudly into the phone----and this heffa STILL kept talking. I started a few times to tell her I'd call her back but she ignored my attempts to interrupt. I zoned back in and realized that she was still talking about her one of her "issues". The same issue that I have been giving her the same advice on for about four months. Then, something snapped in my head and I gently laid the phone down. I have nothing but rollover minutes PLUS, she is a mobile to mobile call. I was curious as to see how long she would talk before she noticed that I was not listening. I enjoyed a large portion of my country breakfast and held polite conversation wtih Biggest for several minutes before my phone lit up with my Icons screen, indicating that the call had disconnected. Cool. Maybe she got the picture. Hell no!!! No sooner had the screen died down, it lit up---this heffa was calling right back! Then, a logic thought came to me. Don't friggin answer! Duuuuuuuuh! So we finished up breakfast (I would love to know WHEN this child's appetite got so big!), talked about the weather, Thomas, Sir Toppemhat, and the new friends on his baseball team. We talked about his red bat and how he was going to hit the balls to Jupiter and knock a ring off Saturn. Needless to say, we enjoyed the tail end of our date. By the time I paid the check and bought a bunch of the irresistable junk that surrounds the checkout, old girl had called me four more times.
When we made it to my truck, I called her back.
Her: Oh girrrrrl. You are so rude.
Me: Rude? Child didn't I tell you that Biggest and I were in the middle of breakfast?
Her: Yeah but you should've told me to call you back.
Me: How could I do that when you never let me get a word in? You can't hear what I am saying if you are too busy listening to yourself talk.
Her: ::::::::::::::::::click::::::::::::::::::::
I guess she waited for me to call her back? Holding your breath will make you turn blue. Anyway, the lesson here?
Anyone who knows me knows that I am long-winded and a talker by nature. I gab on the phone on my way to work, on my way from work, on the way to pick up the kids, after I pick up the kids (they ignore Mommy and talk only to eachother while we are driving), while I cook dinner, while my husband watches the Sci-fi channel...you get the picture. I always have time for others and am a great listener---but some people really abuse that. Take my 'friend' for instance. The only time she can talk is during the day...if her boyfriend is around, she is NOT answering the phone. You could be stuck on the side of the road---good luck to you because she will not divert her attention from him. But when he is not around, she will bombard you with talk. But I digress...that is not really the isse.
Real Talk....since finding out that I am going to be a Mommy once again, I've been thinking a lot about TIME. Yes, time. How fast it flies, how I never held my other babies enough while they were small, how even though we took hundreds of pictures of them as babies, we still didn't take enough. How they grow up in no time and become little Nazis who try to tell you off in an instant. Time. Family time, time for myself. Just time in general. Then I start to think about some people who have no regards for other people's time. I am sure you know one or two. They can only think of themselves. You know that friend/cousin/inlaw/insertthepersonsnamehere who calls you anytime they have something going on. You can tell them that you are in the middle of a lobotomy, being pulled over by the police, or that Jesus Christ is walking the Earth and he just stopped by your house to have a Coke and discuss your eternal fate and what will that person do? They will say, "Forreal? But anyway, lemme tell you about......" Oh, you know that person too? When you do open your mouth to say in plain English, "I'm busy, let me call you back." They ususall reply with, "I'll let you go but first let me tell you about..........." which normally turns into a whole nother rant.
Now that we have established that these people do exist, I blame myself for allowing them to ignore my silent pleas to talk to them another time. For example, my friend Felicia and I talk over my kids screaming in the background and her son doing his thang in her background and we've learned to zone them out. Thats just how we are. But in other instances, I have enough respect to recognize when I've called a friend at an inopportune time and say, "Girl, just call me back when you get a chance." But I guess I am not like some people? Some people will take your kindness as a good listener and friend for granted. Their personal issues will take a frontseat to everything in your life. They don't care what you have going on, as long as they get a chance to talk about their favorite subjects: Self, self, and self. Which brings me to my aha! moment. Just.hang.up. Sound rude? As a person who keeps her phone glued to her, if I don't answer, I am really and truly busy. Send me the "Urgent" text message for something that can truly wait? Click! Now, I know its really rude to intentionaly disconnect a call but how rude is it to blatantly disregard someone's time? I thought you would agree. So, that was my aha! moment of the day. I'll leave you guys with a picture of Biggest (I swear I need to start calling these kids by their names!)on our date. Love ya'll, thanks for listening and don't be afraid to call me! LOL!! MrsS

