The, Uh, Tuesday Five

1. Do you like talking on the phone? Why or why not? As a general rule, no. I much prefer e-mail. No awkward pauses, no frustrating moments when you both want to talk at once, no worrying about whether you're interrupting the other person by calling at a bad time or annoyance because they've interrupted you. Having said that, though, there are a couple of specific people I can think of that I do enjoy having long phone conversations with. In both cases, they're people I really enjoy communicating with but who don't tend to keep up long, chatty e-mail discussions, so if I want to have a decent conversation with them I pretty much have to use the phone.

2. Who is the last person you talked to on the phone? My mom. She went out for a few hours to play some bingo, because she desperately needs to get away once in a while, but apparently she's paranoid something's going to happen to my stepfather while she's gone that I won't know how to handle. Poor guy's no trouble at all, though. Mostly all he does is sleep and watch TV these days. Too weak to do much of anything else...

3. About how many telephones do you have at home? Two, one in the kitchen and one in the computer room. The phone jack in the kitchen quit working for no apparent reason right before I left, though, so I'm going to have to call the phone company when I get back.

4. Have you encountered anyone who has really bad phone manners? What happened? I've already done my telemarketer rant. Nobody can compare to those people for rudeness. Nobody.

5. Would you rather pick up the phone and call someone or write them an e-mail or a letter? Why or why not? Whoops, looks like I've already answered this one. But add to the aforementioned reasons the fact that I much prefer writing to speaking. I'm better at it, and it allows me to put my thoughts in order before I go spewing them forth.