Today's rambling: Me + Phones = Bad
Written on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2002 at 6:40 p.m.
while feeling a bit

No, there's nothing going on right now...nothing that really warrants a diary entry, anyway. But I figured I'd get that little angry rant off the front page, hehehe...

When I woke up this afternoon, I decided that I'd better get my bum in gear and call up the technology folks over in Clarion to get my internet/cable/phone stuff registered. As I've mentioned in here before, I have a serious phobia of making telephone calls. Yeah, I expect it to sound silly to all of you...heck, I know it's silly. But it's one of those things you can't understand unless you've been through it. *shrugs* ANYway, I ended up taking around 5 minutes just preparing myself for this phone call. It's really just the first few moments that are the worst for me, I've realized. The introductory information, where I'm not quite sure what to say. Depending on who it is I'm calling, I'll even rehearse what I'm going to say (this doesn't apply to calling friends, hehe...I'm not quite THAT bad!). So I kept repeating to myself, "Hi, I'm a student at Clarion University and I was wondering if I could register..." blah blah.

In the end, I had to just turn the phone on and start dialing the number, because otherwise I knew I'd keep chickening out. I was greeted by an automated service, and I got one of the "Push 1 if you're blah blah, push 2 if you're blah blah" spiels. Pushed 2, and waited to be connected to a live person (which took all of 2 seconds). I figured that, since I'd pushed the number for "students of Clarion University", the person who picked up would know what I was there for. So, instead of my hastily-rehearsed introduction, I just lopped off the "I'm a student at Clarion University" part. She transferred me to someone else, and so I gave the little line again. This girl asked me what my new address was, and I hesitantly told her that I was going to be in Clarion, and that my address was... .

"Oh, you're going to be going to Clarion?" she asked (or something similar to that).

Trailing off in confusion, I replied, "Oh, I thought that was where I was." This little statement got HER confused, and so I had to go back and say that I'd pushed 2, and therefore thought that I'd be connected to someone who knew that I was from Clarion. She informed me that I'd been transferred elsewhere, because the Clarion section wouldn't be open 'til Monday.

I said thanks and hung up, feeling my face flush. This is yet another example of why I hate telephones. And yeah, I know it happens to everyone. It's just that I so rarely make phone calls of this nature, and every time I do, I end up getting all tongue-tied and embarrassed. Every time. So I sat there on my bed for a few minutes, just muttering to myself about how retarded I felt. After a little bit, I pushed myself up, reassuring myself that they had no idea who I was, it happens to everyone, and so it was alright. But I still feel pretty dumb about it.

Now I'm going to have to call back on Monday, and I'm sure THAT'LL be fun. Oh well, at least I know this time that they'll be available. Today, I wasn't sure whether their hours were Monday through Friday or if they were open all week...but now I guess I know!

Kristen said she only watches TV once a week, so I guess that means I'll be paying for cable for myself. They don't even have the Disney Channel, though! How can you not have the Disney Channel?? Oh, but they've got two MTV channels! *gags* I can't even stand the FIRST MTV, much less a second one! Gah. If she starts watching TV more than once a week, I'm going to ask her to split the bill with me, hehe...

Mom said she'd drive me in to work tomorrow, so I'm happy that I'll get to work. Now that I'm in my last week before I leave for several months, I find I want to be at the store as much as possible so that I can talk to everyone! Tomorrow, I'm going to try getting Geoff to go out after work. He shouldn't be too disagreeable to it, since I won't be around to pester him much longer! :P I was going to call the store today and ask if they'd connect me to his phone (Figured I'd be clever by just saying, "Could you transfer me over to extension 139?" because then they wouldn't page him over the intercom). But when I woke up, I was too nervous to even do THAT (calling him always makes me nervous), so I decided I'd just wait 'til he came in tomorrow and ask him then. What can I say? Two humiliations in one day just would've been two too many over my quota. ;)

The only other thing that happened today is the fact that I finally managed to clean my gerbils' cages. They needed it, too. Hehehe...You're welcome for sharing.

Mom finally came home a little while ago, and I started her about my plan for getting Geoff to go out tomorrow night. She suddenly piped up by saying something about how she felt so bad for him. Turns out, he's been working 16-hour days ever since those stupid C-SOP folks showed their faces. Everything's been all screwed up, and he's been spending all his time just fixing up after them. "I don't know why he hasn't just walked out by now," she said. He's probably gotten little to no sleep, his face is really pale...Honestly, I've never seen ANYONE that dutiful before. Were I him, I'd just put in my 8 1/2 hours, then say, "Screw y'all, I'm going home." I'm not quite sure whether that responsible streak of his is admirable or foolish. :

"Well, there go my plans of asking him out tomorrow," I said glumly.

"I don't know," Mom replied, "he might need to get out."

Still, I'd feel guilty making him go out when he should be at home sleeping. *chuckles at herself* I'm sounding more and more like his mother. X_X

Oo, Mom's going to order me a pizza, whee! If you can't tell, pizza is basically all I eat. Hehe...I'm surprised I don't have the circumference of one! But anyway, that's it for this entry. I guess I had more to say than I originally thought! Isn't that always the way these things go?