Open Thread
Since I probably won't be posting much if at all for the next few days, I'll leave you with this:
I'm going to be doing some blogroll maintenance soon. If you consider yourself a regular reader here (or semi-regular, anyway--meaning you at least check in every now and then and plan to continue doing so in the future), please leave a comment here and I'll make sure you don't get culled from the blogroll. If you're a (semi)regular who's not in the blogroll, leave your link in the comments and I'll most likely add it.
If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave a comment just to say hi anyway, if you want to. I enjoy knowing who's reading on the occasions when I'm not actually just talking to myself.
Speaking of talking to myself, I do that a lot. I talk to inanimate objects like cars and frying pans, too. I'm going to make myself a t-shirt that says, "I'm not talking to myself . . . I'm having a parent-teacher conference."
My sister Amy talks to herself, too . . . in sign language. You think it's funny to hear someone talking away to themselves--and DH will have pretty hilarious animated conversations with himself when he doesn't think anyone is listening. But watching someone talk to herself in sign language is even funnier--hands waving, lips moving, facial expressions and all.
(Speaking of Amy, check out her post about their dinner at our house this week . . . it's a fun read.)
Some of the talking not-to-self incidents can be funny, too, though. Last time we saw our nephew FreeThinking Philosopher (who is actually our age--DH is actually younger than some of his siblings' kids) he got a call on his cell phone during our family gathering.
We heard him say, "Hello? Who were you wanting to talk to? I'm sorry, you must have a wrong number. [pause] You sound nice though . . . what's your name?"
He talked to the girl for another 10 minutes or so while we all laughed unbelievingly in the background. Later he said he once kept a telemarketer on the phone for an hour, and she eventually gave him her phone number.
Now that's taking those generally unwanted phone calls to a whole new level.
Do you talk to yourself or have a unique way of handling telemarketers and wrong numbers?
I'm going to be doing some blogroll maintenance soon. If you consider yourself a regular reader here (or semi-regular, anyway--meaning you at least check in every now and then and plan to continue doing so in the future), please leave a comment here and I'll make sure you don't get culled from the blogroll. If you're a (semi)regular who's not in the blogroll, leave your link in the comments and I'll most likely add it.
If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave a comment just to say hi anyway, if you want to. I enjoy knowing who's reading on the occasions when I'm not actually just talking to myself.
Speaking of talking to myself, I do that a lot. I talk to inanimate objects like cars and frying pans, too. I'm going to make myself a t-shirt that says, "I'm not talking to myself . . . I'm having a parent-teacher conference."
My sister Amy talks to herself, too . . . in sign language. You think it's funny to hear someone talking away to themselves--and DH will have pretty hilarious animated conversations with himself when he doesn't think anyone is listening. But watching someone talk to herself in sign language is even funnier--hands waving, lips moving, facial expressions and all.
(Speaking of Amy, check out her post about their dinner at our house this week . . . it's a fun read.)
Some of the talking not-to-self incidents can be funny, too, though. Last time we saw our nephew FreeThinking Philosopher (who is actually our age--DH is actually younger than some of his siblings' kids) he got a call on his cell phone during our family gathering.
We heard him say, "Hello? Who were you wanting to talk to? I'm sorry, you must have a wrong number. [pause] You sound nice though . . . what's your name?"
He talked to the girl for another 10 minutes or so while we all laughed unbelievingly in the background. Later he said he once kept a telemarketer on the phone for an hour, and she eventually gave him her phone number.
Now that's taking those generally unwanted phone calls to a whole new level.
Do you talk to yourself or have a unique way of handling telemarketers and wrong numbers?
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted by purple_kangaroo at 12:25 PM[Permanent link]
20 Comments:
Do I talk to myself? All the time. I had a friend come up behind me in the hardware store and tell me, "You're doing it again." And this was someone who had moved away from town 2 years ago and just moved back four days earlier.
As for telemarketers -- In this house they get interrupted as soon as we can get a word in edgewise, told "No thank you. Goodbye," and hung up on before they can get another word in. Except for right after someone lost a laptop from The Big Defense Contractor with 5000 folks' payroll info on it. Then my husband hung onto a phone phisher for 15 minutes, trying to figure out just which pieces of personal info he had. There was just the one call, thank heavens, and with any luck we put a bit of fear in them and they didn't try it with too many other folks. But now we pay for the monthly updates from the Big Three to find out who has been dinking our credit info and if there have been any attempts to secure credit cards / loans.
I talk to myself all the time. I usually don't answer myself, though. I figure that the talking out loud while no other visible presence is there qualifies me as disturbed enough. My students think it's hilarious to listen to me chatting with myself.
I don't have any real strategies for dealing with telemarketers, though I wish I did. I try to be polite but they just steamroller all over the polite and keep going. When I was about 12 or so, my mom was getting a rash of heavy breather/obscene phone calls, and she got my dad's coaching whistle (football, soccer, baseball) and shrilled it as loudly as she could at him the next time he called. Amazingly, we didn't have much trouble with those calls anymore.
Hope all is well with you and the fam, and that you come back to blogland soon! We'll miss you, but that shot of Baby E makes it bearable!
Ooo, telemarketers. What a topic. I have two prefered ways of dealing with them, depending on my mood/energy level:
- Method 1 (low energy): I just repeat "No, I'm not interested." (verbatim) as an answer (no explanations/reasons, just "no"). They hang up quickly.
- Method 2 (high energy/mischeivous): This is my prefered method but requires a quicker mind: I provide an aboslutely absurd explanation. e.g. "No, I'm not interested in a long-distance plan, we don't have a phone." or "No, I don't want your newspaper, I can't read."
The beauty of the 2nd method is that these explanations are not on their script and thus the telemarketer is left entirely surprised. You get the most hilarious honest reactions...
I have also been known to argue with a telemarketer when they called me up and insisted they had a great deal for me - I talked to them and pointed out that their math was wrong. (Actual quote included "I see. So you don't charge any taxes then? Mmmhm, I thought so.") They actually appologised and hung up. Ha!
DOnt cut me out of the Blog Roll! ;)
Telemarketers.... I said... Sure Hold on... then set the phone down and walk away. ;)
Talk to myself all the time. And when telemarketers call I say, "Do I owe your company any money? No? Then I'm really sorry, I know you're just doing your job, but please put me on your Do Not Call list. Thanks so much. Have a pleasant evening."
Just wanted to let you know that I read pretty regularly, and I have sure been sympathizing with your food allergy difficulties. That just sounds very, very frustrating.
No need to blogroll me (unless you really want to). Just wanted you to know I enjoy what you write here. :)
Hi! Just wanted to know that I read your blog pretty regularly. Your issues with the food allergies are fascinating, and hitting home as my sister-in-law is battling the same issues.
I am not very sure what blogrolling is, but I wanted to let you know that I read your blog, and love it! Have a great day!
Keep mee, keep me!!!
Too busy for much more - will write later!
I used to talk to myself alot, but anymore my 4-year-old does SO MUCH TALKING and ALL DAY LONG that I can't get a word in and I've been broken of the habit for the most part. Signing to yourself is even funnier--your sister deserves a prize! :) (Love your "parent/teacher conference" t-shirt idea, too, haha!)
You can take Mom@Play off your blogroll, as it is pretty much dead now. I haven't had the inspiration to revive Once Upon A Story, either, and am not sure if/when I will. I still pop in to read your weblog, of course, but you don't have to keep links to my abandoned blogs. Many thanks for linking, though. :)
Hi Purple K,
My blogroll is long and combined with my favorites list, the blogs I visit are even longer so I'm only here now and then. When I come by, I always enjoy my visit. :)
That said, I'm not offended if you cut me from your blogroll. Do what you feel comfortable doing. I combined two of my blogs into one, so "Good Vibrations" is defunct as is "Irrespressible Secrets." Now my blog title is "Shadows in the Moonlight" and my new address is
www.ShadowsintheMoonlight.typepad.com
For wrong numbers I'm polite.
For telemarketers, I realize they must make a living, but time is precious especially time for my family so I am polite but curt as in "No thank you" as I hang up the phone. If they wont' hang up at their end I am more assertive and threaten to report them to the police on my cell phone because it's against the law to tie up someone's phone and we have very aggressive telemarketers.
I deplore those who say they aren't selling anything but really are... grrrrrr
This is Green-eyed lady but I'm also consolidating my blog names into what you see on your link.
I haven't been real active with commenting lately, but I check in on you quite a bit.
Very cute picture!!!
Hi there, PK. Just to let you know I'm still reading. Have a good week.
I talk to myself all the time.
How we handle telemarketers depends upon our mood. Mr. MFBA likes to pretend he is me, complete with a fake voice.
I could eat that baby up!!! How can you stand it? The cuteness is too much!
Yes, I talk to myself in sign language, hehe.
As for wrong numbers, I got a funny one the other day. The person said, "Amy, hi!" and proceeded to rattle off the itenerary for the next day and explain how she was going to be late to my house because she had to pick up so-and-so and then do such-and-such...
After wracking my brain for any forgotten social engagments, I finally said gently, "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about. I think you may have the wrong number."
LOL! What are the chances of someone dialing a wrong number and getting somepne by the same name as the person they were calling?
Hi Angela,
Just wanted to drop in and say I'm still here reading your thoughts! I haven't been on as often but it is an addiction I don't forget. ;-) You're very entertaining and helpful.
Take care, Colleen
I primarily talk to myself when I'm alone, perhaps to keep myself entertained. Other times when I'm deep in thought or reminiscing, perhaps about an emotional event, audible words will just sneak out. It kind of disturbs me that I didn't actually intend to speak.
I read your blog semi-regularly and do my best to catch up when I miss any posts. My replies are decidedly sporadic. I think I read this thread the day you posted it, but am only now responding to show my support. I don't have a regular blog... still gearing up for my first ETR article. :)
Thanks for the comments, everyone! I'll try to get time to reply individually soon, but for now I wanted to let you know I've read and appreciated them all. :)
Camera Obscura, that's scary about the payroll info!
Klee, I mostly talk to inanimate objects, and they don't answer back either. :)
Parodie, I'd love to listen in on one of your "high energy" telemarketer responses . . . it sounds funny.
Heather, hi! Good to see you.
Liz, I always ask them to put us on our do not call list also. But your way sounds more pleasant. I usually just say that we don't make donations or buy things over the phone, and we're supposed to be on the national do-not-call list.
Being Made, thanks so much for the comment and the sympathy . . . I'm glad you enjoy reading.
Liz, I didn't realize I had two Liz readers/commenters! Nice to "meet" you. The blogroll is the list of blogs you see on the right-hand side of my blog's main page.
Mommyham, will do. :)
Hi, Carole! I'm so glad to see you're still around. I don't belong to the doll board any more . . . too busy with my real kids to play with dolls nowadays. Feel free to drop me an e-mail any time, though.
Storymom, I'll make the second one private in my bloglines feed so I can see if you start posting on it again, but it won't be cluttering up the blogroll while it's stagnant. I'm glad you're still around reading and commenting!
Silvermoon, thanks for the update . . . I'll change the address when I update.
Miraclebaby, hi! I check in on you often too . . . the time is getting close now!
CCW, that's funny! Does he ever fool them?
Halloweenlover, she does seem to be quite photogenic I think . . . but then I'm severely biased.
Amy, that's hilarious!
Colleen, thanks for the comment.
Kevin, I'm looking forward to reading that ETR article whenever you get around to it.
I didn't used to, untill I had the kids. Then one day when Dan was about a few days old I suddenly thought if I don't start talking to him even though he doesn't answer yet he'll never learn to talk. Now I talk to everything it's a kind of habit born of that I think.
<< Purple Puzzle Place Home