Episode #199: Please Wait, Your Call Is Very (Non)Important To Us

For those of you who may not have seen a pic of my daughter in quite some time, this is her, a soon-to-be Summer 2024 University graduate with an undergraduate degree in neuro-science. Very, very proud of her and her accomplishments in the medical field.

With the parental bragging now out of the way, on to the topic at hand: waiting.

I know this doesn't sound like much of a topic to expound and expand on, but have you ever had a week that was basically spent just....waiting. Waiting for someone to get back to you. Waiting for inspiration. Waiting for a train. Waiting for Calgon to take you away. You know, waiting is the hardest part of life.

I had such a week like that. Just spent it...waiting. Normally I'm not a very patient man (having grown up in a household that does not value punctuality has made me become OCD when it comes to time as an adult), but I have mellowed out over the years. Nowadays, I simply try to play the long game with my patience. If I need something really bad, and it's from a person/business that normally is very good about getting it done in a timely manner, I'll be an adult and wait. It's not like I actually have somewhere to be. I'm retired, where am I gonna go?

So, we spent a week being a redundant clock-watcher: sleep, eat, walk, write, walk, eat, write, run errands, computer, sleep. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I mean, not even doing a deep rabbit hole dive down YouTube was enough to keep me occupied (and if you know what kind of legitimately odd YT content that I sometimes watch, that statement would make you say, "d@mn!") during the week. Nor changing up how I answer the phone was doing it for me.

Note: I now answer the phone like Sherman from Mr. Peabody's Improbable History and tell the people on the other end I'm a tween. If I can get them to stay longer, I'll ask them innocent questions about what they're trying to sell.

I don't believe I've had a week like this before, where the excitement of doing a digital crossword puzzle is an actual highlight of the week. Actually, I should correct myself, as it's a co-highlight. The other co-highlight is mentally working out the 3rd ending to the 3rd volume of my Hot Mess series (no, not a trilogy anymore), which truth be told, ain't easy. 

So, as they say, patience is a virtue that no one seems to have anymore, in any kind of quantity. A droll dry week is just....meh. I should add that Thanksgiving wasn't the misadventure that it usually turns out to be. I got to meet a few relatives that I haven't seen since 2018/19; got a depressing update on another; had a pleasant drive to the gold coast to have that Thanksgiving ("gold coast' here in CT is lower Fairfield County, where a large percentage of those who work in NYC enjoy living and spending their hard earned money); and pleasant return trip, in which I started in sunshine and arrived home at night.

But yeah, waiting in the real world is not like Heinz Catsup. It's more like molasses on a cold autumn day. Just. Slooooow. Hope your Monday doesn't continue a previous mediocre week.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved