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 | worry me this |
So, due to the fact that 80 bazillion people live in San Diego county*, we now have to dial the area code for all outgoing telephone calls. Even if you live down the street from me, when I telephone you I have to dial 1, then your area code—which is also my area code—and then your phone number.
The Powers That Be sent us numerous postcards alerting us to the planned change, informing us of the date we’d have to start the extra dialing procedure, etcetera, etcetera.
I was sure—sure!—I would never remember to do this.
When you dial a phone, you do it automatically, right? You don’t think about what you’re going to dial, you just do it. So I figured I was doomed to misdial every phone number for all of eternity. I would spend the rest of my days listening to a recorded voice tell me to hang up and try dialing again, this time with area code.
The new dial-an-area-code plan went into effect in October. And I did, in fact, forgot to dial the area code. Once. On the first day. I hung up before I even heard the recorded voice. I haven’t done it again; I just automatically dial the one and the area code and the rest of it.
As does everybody else.
I want to think this means I’m not as curmudgeonly as I feared. I’m adaptable! But I suspect it just means I worry too much, and about the wrong things. Which is, I suppose, another something to worry about. But at least there’s no recorded voice to correct me about that one. (“This worry is illogical. Please try your worry again.”)
*Or maybe for some other reason. I don’t think I paid enough attention when this was being explained. I was too busy worrying about all the extra mental energy I would have to expend remembering to dial area codes.
Funny. They just started this stupid area code requirement in here in CT this month!! Like 3 days ago or something. And now I am battling it out with my iPhone to actually dial the 860 when I tell it to. It has a mind of it’s own and likes to take shortcuts.
I feel the need to say: OF COURSE YOU ARE ADAPTABLE. Hello children, and babies, and CHILDREN, and husbands, and WORRIES THAT NEED PRIORITIZING. But I rather like the automated voice that buzzes in your ear at the most obnoxious moment:
This worry is illogical. Please try your worry again.” Oh I love that. And will think of you next time I hear it in my own mind. I’ll think of you then, and I’ll think of you every time I’m battling the fruit flies in my kitchen. Lovely, eh?
Wow! You are only NOW having to dial the area code? We’ve been doing this for twenty years some places on the east coast. My husband has THREE different area codes, one for our home, one for his office and another for his cell phone. Believe me, it will become second nature to you. One day you’ll be surprised when people say, “I need your phone number and please give you your area code first.”
we don’t have to do that here yet (pinellas county, fl) but in Dallas and Northern NJ we did. its especially annoying when it first gets instituted, but then you get over it…like so many things, right?
Sarah, at least you’ll think of me OFTEN.
Corrie, we’ve had multiple area codes for a while, but dialing the area code even if we’re calling within our own area code is new to us.
I’ve been there, too. When I was living in eastern Mass, they added new area codes and started requiring the 11-digit numbers. I like your adaptable theory. And I can identify with your worry-too-much theory. Yup.
It’s lame. I keep forgetting and it gives me a busy signal. And then I wonder who actually has a busy signal in these days of call waiting, except for my friend who refuses to give in to any of that. And I hang up and wait, hoping they stop dialing ans I can get through. Then I remember I didn’t dial the area code and it’s really my fault. Why does it come up as a busy signal? Argh!
They introduced this system here a few years ago, and I forgot a few times. But yeah, on the whole, not a big deal.
On the other hand, I totally relate to the worry. And the worry about the wrong things. And the worry about worrying. I’m a worrier, I’ll admit it. I’m not sure it benefits me in any way, but I do it pretty much religiously. Fun, right?
I so relate to this post. (Not the phone thing. That happened in my area in high school and in a temporary home area code long before I got there.) I am sometimes amused and sometimes horrified at how much time I spend worrying about things that never, ever have any bearing on how things really happen. It’s like there are 20 scenarios and i worry, intensely, about 7. But surprise, surprise, it’s always #19 that happens and I have wasted my time and energy.
Up side? I always pick the biggest ones to worry about, so when #19 hits I’m totally relieved. Except for the wasted time and energy. And the shame of being wrong.