daunting
Monday, September 21, 2009 at 4:52AM I have my own phone. I guess it isn't my first own phone, but it's my first own phone that isn't just an emergency "In case you're stranded on the side of the road" phone. It's an honest-to-goodness, ditch-your-landline cell phone, with its own phone number, and (gasp) voice mail box.
And there's the problem with having my very own phone. The voicemail. It wants something from me. It wants me to call it up and record my voice saying....something that everyone who calls me will hear. Does it not understand the weight of this situation? Does it not know how important that little recording can be?
Yeah, I know it's a machine.
The problem is, right now it's only the computer-people's voices on my voicemail, saying, "You have reached (a number you're not even sure is mine), please leave a message". So nobody even knows it's me when they call my phone. I get a whole lot of messages that start, "Hi, I'm trying to reach Erin, but I may have the wrong number..." I like anonymity as much as the next guy, but after a while it just feels kinda mean to keep doing that to folks.
At every point in the past, I've shared a phone with somebody or somebodies else. It was easy to get with all my roommates, lean close to the phone and say, "You've reached apartment 36! Leave us a message!" It was even easier to say to my husband, "You record it. You won't say something silly." It was even okay, when it was just an emergency phone, to just record my voice saying my name and let the voicemail say, "This is the voicemail of "Erin", please leave a message after the tone."
But this. This is different. Now it's my personal phone and there's a yawning, empty hole that I have to put my personality, my public face, into. What do I say? I mentally go back through all the phone messages I've known. There are different approaches. There's the casual approach, as in, "What's up, dog? It's Erin! Speak!" But then what if the dentist calls? That seems a little silly. There's the straightlaced message, "You've reached Erin's cellphone. Please leave a message." But then people get the idea that you're buttoned-down. I'd love to give people the idea I was buttoned-down, but, well, that's akin to lying.
Do I leave a long message? "It's Erin, and I really do love you, but right now I'm probably changing a diaper or rescuing one of my children from the middle of the road or teaching math or making bread or chasing chickens around with a camera, so do leave me a message, and just to prove that I do hold you in highest esteem, I'll call you back when I can..."? Then people dread calling me twice because they have to sit through that audiobook. Do I leave a short message? "Erin. Message." Brevity has never been my strong point.
So, day after day, my voicemail message remains blank. If you call me, I just want you to know a) that it is me, and b) it's not because I don't want to record a message, or because I've forgotten, or any of that. It's just...does anybody else find this daunting?
Reader Comments (5)
You just gotta take the plunge. I decided to let people think I was button-down. People who don't know me think that of me anyway and any friends I have can read between the lines and hear, "It's E-diggity. Leave me a message because I'm screening my calls."
Make your kids do it! I've had a cell phone for over a year and it's still the silly computer lady!
To (somewhat) quote you, you could say "It's Erin. If you're calling me on purpose, I just want you to know a) that it is me, and b) it's not because I don't want to record a message, or because I've forgotten, or any of that. Leave a message."
See - not too brief, long, buttoned down, or wackadoo. And it's you!
I feel for you. Mine is blank too because I keep forgetting to have someone record it for me. You have to be careful delegating though; my husband once put a message on mimicking my voice. I hope I discovered it before anyone else did.
Randy made my message (because I never would do it). I think it says something like "you have reached Marsha's phone, please leave her a message".....I agree it is a painful task.