Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Learning the Hard Way

I have a relative I dearly love – but, by choice, I rarely talk with her. As loveable as she is – to put it bluntly – she talks too much! When she says at the end of a conversation, “It’s been so nice talking to you,” she means just that! Talking “to” you. One listens to this woman. You’re having a good day if you can express one complete thought without her interrupting. It’s very annoying, but she is such a sweet person that there’s nothing to be done without hurting her feelings. 

One recent evening, I discovered a message on my machine from a good friend. She wanted me to return her call her so I picked up the phone, looked at the memory log and, sans glasses, chose the name and number that I thought was hers and pushed the button. It rang only twice when, to my regretful surprise, a laughing voice said, “Well, hi Peggy. I’m so happy you called! I’ve been thinking about you.” Uh-Oh! It was the marathon talker. I was stuck!

There was no way I was going to tell her I’d made a mistake; she was too pleased that I’d called. So I made the best of it. Exactly an hour and a half later, we hung up! By then, it was too late to phone my friend since she goes to bed early. I sent e-mail instead telling her I’d call the next day.

I once knew a man just like this woman. It was impossible to have a two-way conversation with him. He never listened to another person because he was so busy thinking about what he was going to say next. This bothered me for years until I finally heard another man censure him! It was interesting! My friend was rattling on and on in his usual fashion, not listening to the other guy, when suddenly, the second one stopped him in mid-sentence. He said, “Now, Jimmy, if you’re talking all the time, you can’t hear what I’m saying, can you?”

I watched Jimmy’s face turn crimson and felt a little sorry for him, but it worked! He listened carefully to the other guy through the rest of the conversation. We lost contact not long after that, so I’m not sure if he learned a lesson from that incident or not. I can only hope.

However, I do know what I learned from my mistake: From now on, I’ll put my glasses on before dialing the phone!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know people like this peg. you like them but not the way they are nonstop talkers. good post.

sherry hill said...

I know exactly where you are coming from! Had a relative like that and honestly, you had to have food and drink close by--it was that long on the phone!

sam said...

hey peg. you know some interesting people don't you? I can always find something good to read about on your blog. sam

jenny said...

I'm glad one of your talkers was a man. Women usually get the blame for all the talking.