memorable phone calls.......

ok, so the day was wrought with phone calls......from folks wanting to come to classes in time slots that didn't match up with my work hours......to phone calls overheard...to calls that i spent the day getting myself prepared to make......lets start with the overheard call.....a classic that will go down in my little black book of eavesdropped banter........a new mom came by with her new baby and her mother on their way home from the hospital...to pick up governmental vouchers for formula....both mamma and grandmamma were in pajama bottoms, slippers and hoodies....not exactly matching mother-daughter ensembles.......but the gist was the same.......and the mamma was carrying the baby....and the grandma was lugging everything else.....the carseat, the diaper bag....etc.......and the grandma pushed aside my guest 'stool'....and plopped herself down on the floor.....and took out her cell phone and proceeded to dial up some critical listener.....'didya hear what happened to me last night?.......the pajama grandma querried.......'she was asleep in her room.....yeah she just got out today........and i wanted some taco bell.....so i drove over to the plaza.....you know...about 11....and the next thing i know.....i am waking up in my car with the motor running and the tacos on my lap........and i am still in the taco bell parking lot at 4:30 in the morning........i really must have been tired to just crash like that.......'......gentle readers.....there are not words to describe the personal restraint required to make not one visual facial reaction to such a conversation....in my office from a pajama-clad grandma sprawled out on my floor into a cell phone....about something so foolhardy as to fall asleep in a running car in a public parking lot........and then there were my calls....to the extended warranty people regarding my hp-pda that has become nonfuctional.....i opted to contact the office depot people who sold me the extended warranty BEFORE i threw the conumdrum pda at the wall.......but i digress......these calls are answered by folks who did not grow up speaking english.....and the protocol they follow is no doubt designed to terrify those who have not spent the day gearing up to deal with every possible scenario........and even after i was switched to an actual hp technician.....who told me what i already knew...that the confounded machine is beyond the company warranty....and i had to redial the foreign help-desk.......and now that i have what i want......i am back to square one.....i will send back the pda in return for a store merchandise card in the exact amount of the purchase price.......only now i have to choose all over again.....palm os versus windows for pc........palm versus hp.......i am already having decision anxiety.......quite similar to that i experienced when i bought the thing last year just after my birthday....so many questions....do i upgrade...spend a bit more money for a lot bigger hard-drive........i am emamored of the wi-fi thing.......i really like to slip my pda out of my purse and get connected in free wi-fi zones......but i digress.....yet again.........