My problem with the phone

I hate the phone.

I hate making phone calls and I hate receiving phone calls.

Some of that stems from the days when I was a flight attendant and we used to get called day and night to come and work extra flights. There was never enough crew to operate all the flights they scheduled. Or delayed. Or had mechanicals. And flight attendants aren't regulated by Transport Canada the same way pilots are. Crew rest is not something that was necessarily respected. So that phone rang. Incessantly.

Some of my friends who worked with me at that company have developed the same allergy against phones. It's nice to see I'm not the only one.

Then there is the problem of not hearing very well. I feel apprehension when the phone rings and the call display states a number, or name, I don't recognize. What if that person has a bad line, or the connection has static? What if he (it's usually a he) has a quiet voice? What if they speak too fast, or mumble?

None of these problems mattered much up to now. Because of call display I could choose to ignore the phone, which I did most of the time. Unless it was hubby, or my mom. Or someone I knew.

But now, I'm a Freelance Writer Working From Home and I receive business calls on our residential line.

Lordy.

Note to self: change the voicemail message to something more generic.

The anxiety I go through. The dreams/nightmares I have anticipating a bad connection, or misinterpreting important information.

I am a stress case.

Yet today, things are looking up.

First of all, I managed to make contact with actual, real people who returned my calls. I had planned on making phone calls today and although I imitated my toddler's delay tactics (aka procrastination) I forced myself to JUST DO IT while Benjamin was in daycare.

It was then or never.

He even went down for a nap, although not without a fuss, at more or less the planned nap time.

So then I spoke to a nice guy who left me a message over lunch and who even suggested he would send me some text he produced for a pamphlet he designed.

This would be really helpful for me. I can take information from that and incorporate it into my article.

One thing I noticed is that although I had a nice list of questions prepared for the interview, I found that our rather casual conversation didn't flow in the direction I wanted it to.

I have to practice this skill some more.

But all in all, I'm happy with my accomplishment today. I set out to do something, did it, and am now able to contribute to my article some valuable quotes.

I'm excited.