Reach Out And I'll Throttle You

Eugene and I recently had a conversation about his date last weekend. He was basically connecting with this guy that he chatted back and forth with on Yahoo IM. He told me the guy was 6"3 (probably 6"1 1/2...*LOL*...see my earlier post of the day to find out about that rant), 210 pounds of dark chocolate muscle. Needless to say I was intrigued.

Eugene met this guy in a public place to avoid any possibility of having relations. So he was telling me all about the date, which I won't detail since he'll have to get his own blog. However one thing he said peaked my interest and thus motivated me to post this entry (while playing hooky from the job...*LOL*).

One of Eugene's pet peeves is when a date answers their cell phone in the middle of their outing. He was even peeved at me when I picked up my cell phone to answer his call during the middle of my summer date with That Asshole That Shall Not Be Named (even if it is a fake name...*LOL*). His thought process is that if you're taking the time to get to know a person, it's rude to be carrying a conversation with someone else.

So Hemingway his date's cell phone was ringing during lunch. Eugene told me that he gave his date the 'I dare you to pick up that phone look'. And his date didn't. That had me rolling.

As we talked some more, I realized that I could actually see Eugene's point. (Then again seeing things from different perspectives has been my forte. It's a curse sometimes too.) I remember when TATSNBN was chatting on his cell phone making plans for the next day with someone while out with me, how peeved I was. The only thing is I had little ground to complain because I unfortunately picked up my cell earlier on him. I hate to say it too but I think I saw a glimmer of anger in TATSNBN's eyes when I did that. Who knows, maybe that's what led to his actions later.

The truth is, I normally don't pick up my cell phone if I'm hanging out with someone. The only time I would is if I was bored with the date and needed a breakaway. But I guess I saw it was Eugene and broke that rule.

I too have had situations where I was in the middle of something intense with someone and that person chose to answer their phone. That killed the mood instantly and I usually would end things there.

The thing is, do people always have to be available for someone when they call? Nine times out of ten the caller on the other end has trivial shit to talk about anyway. Voice mail was created for a reason. Right?

I recently had a coffee date (literally at Starbuck's) with a guy and my work pager was going off. I kept trying to ignore it (it was on vibrate) because I was having a great conversation with him. Finally after the fourth page, I realized that I needed to pick it up. So I regrettably told him I had to check my pager and he decided to check on his email. I wound up having to call the office. Sigh. Luckily the date ended coolly but I couldn't help thinking how much easier it would be if we didn't have gadgets interrupting all the time.

It's amazing how cell phones have changed people's lives. I mean, what the hell did people do before the popularity of cell phones? If someone wanted to reach you and you were out, they left a message and if you need to call them later, you do.

So my new rule, if I'm on support that month, I mention it to any dates I may have so that I won't be totally rude. A date I had a year ago also told me ahead of time that he would need to be on a 30 minute conference call while we were out. We were playing phone tag a lot previously so despite that, I went through with the date. But it was cool that he told me ahead of time so that I wouldn't be too upset. I made the choice to deal with it as opposed to having it made for me.

On the bright side, I know when Eugene and I have lunch after the holidays, it'll be interruption free on both ends. That's so refreshing.

I guess I better drive my ass to work. Later.