Well, it's happened. Chris and I have become those people. Some of you might be those people too, in which case we used to scorn you, but now we have joined you in your thosepeopleness, so we can't look down on you any longer. It happened this way:
Chris was planning on coming home at 5:30 this evening, and informed me of this fact before he left for work. So I was fully aware of the plan. At 5:00, I get a call on my cell phone, and it's Chris, calling from HIS cell phone.
Chris: "Hi dear -- I just wanted to let you know that I'm leaving now, so I should be home at 5:30 --"
Me: "Wait, are you calling me to tell me that everything is going exactly according to plan?"
That's right, we are now those people who plan for a certain thing to happen at a certain time, and then call each other to announce that everything is going exactly according to plan. I was exposed to heavy doses of this back when I used to commute to Boston on the train -- on the way home, I would get to hear 500 people say into their cell phones, "HI! I'M ON THE TRAIN!" and then proceed to relate that the train is on time and that they should be arriving right on schedule.
OK, so really I'm just making fun of Chris, because I didn't do anything. But he'll understand!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
HI! I'M ON THE TRAIN!
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4 comments:
Oh yes. I'm acquainted with this challenge of modern life. I once was working my way through the airport, too many bags in hand and underfoot, only to have my cellphone ring. I made a reasonable assumption: I should answer it. So I stood stupidly in the middle of a busy hallway as people streamed around me inconveniently and I juggled luggage and bags and phones, only to get the ALL-important message, "Everything is going exactly according to plan, and I'll meet you at the curb." AAAARRRGH!!!!
That's why I never ever have a plan. I feel so unprdictable. That, and I never do anything.
Actually, I was calling to remind Kirsten to start making dinner. I just tried to be tactful and not SAY it.
(Absent conveying this message, it did occur to me to say just, "Everything is going exactly according to plan," and hang up.
Other subtext:
"The other girlfriend has to go home now."
"Time to run to Trader Joe's for some Tasty Bites."
"Open the wine now so it can breathe before I guzzle it down in the first five minutes after I get home."
(Oh, terrible run-on sentence, but that's allowed when you're talking.)
I am oneofthosepeople. But I have a reason: things so rarely go as planned in my household that it merits a phone call when it actually happens.
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