A Christmas Gift to Myself

Right before I left for Christmas, I had this urge to call someone in particular. I e-mail various bloggers, I call my blog sistah Tammi all the time, I've known VW for almost 20 years and we talk all the time. But believe it or not, it takes a lot for me to get the guts to call someone I've not met in person. When Tammi got lost in space and I knew that blogbro _Jon was on his way to see her, I called him to see if we couldn't find a way to find her... but it took a lot for me to call. It was a deep breath moment on my part. I don't know why I get like this. I don't know if I get nervous that I'll disappoint someone, or I'm afraid I'll sound like a fool, or I'm afraid I won't know what to say, I just don't know.

Occasionally, however, something will happen in my day that reminds me of a blogger or blog sibling and I'll think, "Oh! They would think that is funny!" It has happened with one blogsibling in particular... and finally I decided that as a gift to myself, I would call her... and her husband, to wish them a Merry Christmas. That would be Sally and Alex.

I wanted to stay on for hours, but couldn't, because.... they live in England. I had only made one international call in my life and it did not go well. I was working in aerospace and I had to call a USAF base in Germany to talk to one of our field reps. I swear I punched those numbers as they were given to me, but I ended up talking to some construction worker at some construction company in Oklahoma. Not knowing what our field rep sounded like, I figured he could have been a good old boy, but the deep Southern Oklahoma drawl on the other end said, "Honey, I promise you, sweetheart, this is not Germany. This is 'such and such construction' in 'anyplace' Oklahoma."

So I was a bit gunshy. I couldn't get the call to go through first to Sally. I had to get operator assistance. I guess I had one too many numbers, but finally I got through and got their answering machine. It was a very proper English accent and I almost started to laugh because it sounded so... so... space age! It was one of the telephone company voices, so you know how they sound in America, "If you wish to page your caller, please press #5", but in a proper English accent, for some reason it seemed very new age.

After much e-mailing, we finally got a time and I was able to talk to both Sally and Alex. It was a wonderful talk and it made my day. They are the NICEST people.

So I am awaiting my phone bill. If it was $10 I'm doing it again in January. If it was $100, well, I have to wait a couple months and save for it.