Answering Machine

I answer the phone in my apartment a lot. And the fact of the matter is that it's very rarely for me. We also have caller ID so I could realistically screen all the calls and not answer the phone when my roommates are gone. Then the machine could get it and I wouldn't have to remember to tell someone that someone called them. But I don't, and I don't really know why.

The funny thing is that when it's for Carly she usually isn't there, so her sister (that's who it usually is) ends up calling her cell phone anyway. Why not call the cell phone first and then calling the apartment if she is home?

I don't really know how to simplify things when it's for Charlotte, because she doesn't have her cell phone with her half the time. She is a recent convert to the cell phone world. We tell her that she's going to get kidnapped or something and we won't know because we'll try to call her phone to find out where she is and hear her phone ring in the other room.

Then there are my friends that don't have cell phones. It's always really odd to pick up the phone and have it be for Seth or Pavio. I mean, really, they don't live here. Well, Seth practically does. Sometimes I want to tell Sabrina, Seth's sister, that I know he's here a lot but please tell me this is the last number you tried. And if someone is trying to find Pavio and he's not with Alex or Mike or at his apartment then he's not here either. And both Alex and Mike have cell phones.

I know the phone isn't for me, and I don't like talking on the phone, but I still jump up when it rings. I'll be hanging out with friends and the phone will ring and I'll jump up saying, "it's not for me."

I've come to expect that with the apartment phone. And it really doesn't matter that much because I've got my cell phone, and anyone that wants to talk to me usually calls that first.

BUT . . .

Saturday I was on the way to Los Hermanos, a Mexican restaurant. I was riding with Stephanie, Emily, and Scott. My cell phone rang and it said it was Alex who was riding in the car behind us. I answer it and am met with silence. So I say "hello" again and I hear Mike's girlfriend say, "can I talk to Scott?"

It boils down to Scott making faces at Mike, who was driving, and making "call me" motions to Reagan, Mike's girlfriend. So she did, but Scott doesn't have a cell phone either. So she used Alex's phone to call mine. I handed the phone to Scott. And then she hung up on him.