This morning I called my mom on the way to work. The first time I called it was busy. I tried back a minute later and it rang.
My mom: Hey! Did you just call?
Me: Yeah, I did. Why?
My mom: Well, we switched our phone service because I found one that would save us $40 a month. The guy told me our new one would be the same as the old, but I think we might have call waiting.
Me: Oh no.
(Note: In 2004, somehow my parents accidentally got call waiting. It was a disaster. You couldn’t get through 30 seconds of a phone call without them saying “Oh wait! Gotta go! Someone’s calling!” Then, of course, the someone would be a salesperson or the electrician or someone equally boring. So, they’d call back 5 minutes later after you’d already starting doing something else and they would want to keep talking. Of course, what was worse than that was when I would call them, they would hang up on someone else to talk to me, and then as soon as I said hello, they’d say “Sorry! Can’t talk right now! We were on the phone with your brother!”
It was a learning experience. I learned that some people are not meant to have call waiting and those people are my parents. I was thrilled once they ended the service.)
(cont’d)
My mom: I know! I hate call waiting! It’s so rude. I don’t know how we got signed up for this.
Me: Yeah. Maybe you should try to get rid of it.
My mom: I definitely am. So, are you excited about going on vacation for a few days this— wait! Wait! I have an incoming call. I think it might be your dad because I just called him. I’m going to go ahead and talk to him. I’ll talk to you later! Have a—
Me: What?!?! You said you didn’t want call waiting! Don’t hang up on me!
My mom: Oh yeah. But I needed to talk to him.
Me: You have a problem. Get rid of the call waiting. We’re not doing this again.
Sep 2nd