Fear of the Unknown Caller

I like phones.  I like phone technology.  I just don't like answering the phone.  I like calling people and I like it when they answer (because I'm calling them, of course), but I don't like answering the phone when someone's calling me. 

I know why this is the case, it's work-related.   I worked in a high-stress job that put me in complicated and difficult positions as a manager, consultant and employee regularly.  I never knew who was calling and I didn't know what complicated or difficult situation I might find out and have to handle as a result of answering that unknown call.   So, I developed an aversion to answering the phone.

This doesn't apply to friends and family.   You folks, with your friendly caller IDs, were never the kind I wanted to avoid.  Those calls were the easy, even fun calls.   It was the unknown caller, unrecognized caller ID, or the known caller from the sales guy who always sold something we didn't have but the customer had to have it in three weeks and surely we could pull it together at night, right?  Those are the calls I hated.

I would change my ring tone to something friendly, something happy, some snippit of a song I loved in the hopes I wouldn't hate to hear it ring so much.   That helped for a while, but never for long. 

In recent years I've watched my husband answer the phone and be amazed because answering an unknown number never bothered him.   But lately I think I'm finally getting over the fear of the unknown caller.   If I was waiting for an important call, say the cable repair person to call and say he's on the way, I'd answer an unknown number and almost visibly cringe as I said hello. 

Lately, I've had a lot of things going on that have caused me to answer the phone having no idea who it could even possibly be...and things have turned out all right.    I haven't looked at the phone and waited for the voice mail bing to happen.   I've answered right away and taken care of the situation and nothing terrible has happened to me.   It's almost freeing to be able to answer the phone without fear.

The Big Boy Update:   "When it's night night time I close it up."   <graphic description follows>  My son sits on the potty and drags the foreskin of his penis over the top of his penis and makes it go "night night".  Then, he pulls the skin back and there is a, "mouth", or so he tells us.   The other day even Nana and I had a hard time keeping a straight face as he told us all about it. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Aunt Rebecca came to visit today and my daughter was very cute describing to her where everyone was, or was not.   There were people who were "here" (daddy) and people who were "not here" (mommy).  There was also her brother, who was "on the couch over there".  Many kisses were blown when Aunt Rebecca left.

Fitness Update:  Today I didn't run to Starbucks to have a coffee and chat with Uncle Jonathan.   This was due largely in part to a misunderstanding.   I thought, "let's run to Starbucks" was a literal thing.   I got my running clothes on, got ready to head out the front door when Uncle Jonathan said, "we're not running there, we're driving."  Oh.