Two things happened tonight that I want to comment on.

First.

A man called around 5:45 and left an angry message, which he ended by saying, “It would be nice if a fucking human being answered instead of a machine”.

I was angry when I heard the message. In fact I picked up the phone and hit dial. It went to voice mail. I’m not sure what I was going to say.

After I hung up, I thought to myself. Isn’t his comment true of most of the things in our life. I wish it wasn’t quicker to do self-checkout. I used to like the interaction with the lady at Hannaford. I wish that I didn’t have to maneuver through six pages of prompts before speaking to someone at my doctor’s office. I wish that a guy still pumped my gas. I wish the redemption center with the guys who took the cans out of my car were still open. I wish a 16-year-old boy would take my groceries to the car for me. I wish McDonald’s didn’t force you to use kiosks in some of their outlets. Yes, human interaction is nice. At least for me.

For my boyfriend, not so much. He loves scanning and bagging his own groceries. He loves using the kiosk at McDonald’s. I don’t think he knows what a redemption center is, so that doesn’t bother him either.

For me the message alluded to the fact that we (and I really mean me) are not doing our jobs. The man clearly thinks I’m in the office just ignoring his calls. I am not. We are not. I answer the phone whenever I can. Sometimes to the detriment of the people in front of me. It’s really beneficial to the business to answer the phone. So don’t be bitchy when I can’t.

We have tried for three months now, to hire an admin. Someone to do light office work, but mostly answer the phones from 2 until 7. That person does not currently exist in our world. So. I answer the phone. Sometimes on your first try. Sometimes on your 32nd try. But probably not your 68th time.

Which brings me to part two of tonight’s post.

Stop fucking calling!!!

Tonight, at 4:50 as we unlocked the door, the phone began to ring. As it is wont to do. This is not uncommon. I began to seat the guests who came through the door. And the phone continues to ring. As it rings I unconsciously, hit the white button on the upper left part of the phone that silences it. I do this throughout the night. Occasionally, I WILL look at the phone and thus I see who is calling. I do try and notice if it’s an upcoming reservations, in case someone needs to change something. This was not the case tonight.

And the phone rings. At some point I see it’s Michael (lets call his last name Finch). And then I notice it’s him again. And again. This too is not unusual. Everyone calls two or three times hoping to finally get someone. However. The phone continues to ring. It continues to be Michael. This goes on until around 7:45 when I get a break and finally answer. He says he’s trying to book a table for the weekend. I start to look up the date, when a family walks in. I tell him I need to put him on a brief hold and I do. I seat the party. When I come back. He’s gone.

And the phone continues to ring. And it continues to be Michael. And I realize that he’s left six messages at this point and continues to call. I also know his request is not urgent so I decide to see what happens.

The phone continues to ring.

And ring.

And ring.

And ring.

And ring.

And ring.

We close at 8:30.

The phone continues to ring.

I go into the office to do work.

The phone continues to ring.

At one point I decide to count how many times Michael has called. I can’t do this however, as his continuing phone calls interrupt my time on Caller ID.

The phone continues to ring.

I go into the dining room.

It rings.

I go talk to Joe on the line. It rings. I ask him if he hears it, as I’m about to tell him what’s going on. He instead tells me that I’m losing my mind and wants to know if I’m going to become Jack Torrance and start saying “All work and NO play makes Jeff a dull boy!”

He can’t hear the phone but it’s still ringing.

Around 10:00 it finally stopped. Our Caller ID only records the last 50 calls. All but two were from Michael. This was from 7:46 to 10:00. He started around 5:00 so I’m guessing around 100 calls.

This felt a lot like an obsessed boyfriend. (I would not know about this!).

I sort of kind of maybe feel like at some point I should have answered. But after the first 50 calls I wanted to see how it all played out. Seriously, who spends five hours of the evening, just hitting redial on their phone?

Oh.

I forgot to mention. At some point, he switched numbers he was calling from because the Caller ID recorded M. Finch at one point instead of Michael Finch.

To be honest, it was kind of creepy.

Tune in Wednesday, when I report back on my returning his six messages.