the busy signal will drive me to drink

When was the last time you heard a busy signal? In this age of voice mail and call waiting, you would think the busy signal was a relic of the past. Not so much.

A good friend of mine refuses to get either call waiting or voice mail. Couple this with the fact that she can gab for hours a time, and you get the permanent busy signal. It holds a special place on my list of pet peeves, believe me.

The problem with the busy signal is that it feels so final and you have no recourse. Voice mail allows you to leave a message and then go about your business. Even if the person you're calling is on the phone, you can leave a message. Lines with call waiting but no voice mail at least give you the illusion that someone may answer or that voice mail may kick in. Still feels much better than the busy signal.

The busy signal could be used to torture me. When I call and get the busy signal, I go a little crazy. I think I might have busy signal ocd. I find myself calling back regularly like one of those crazy stalker people you see on tv. It's quite unsettling. Just when I think I'm bigger than the busy signal ocd, I realize I'm not and I just have to try one more time. It's not even like I have anything important to talk about. I just want to get through. I have a problem. I can admit it.

SunnyShine

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RainyBow note: Oh oh OH. You have no idea how crazy this stuff makes me. My parents refuse to get call waiting and I try to call them for hours some nights (and I'm not exaggerating). And then they wonder why I "never" call and my mom leaves me messages that say only "It's your mother and I love you" to try to shame me into starting the whole cycle again. I love parental guilt trips. Fantastic.

They won't buy a cell phone either. They have a cottage in the middle of nowhere and they go to it for weeks at a time. This cottage has no landline and neither one of them will get a cell phone, so there is no way to reach these people in case of an emergency. And then they freak out and don't sleep when I drive somewhere on my own at night. Hey, at least I have some way of reaching people in case of an emergency.

I swear this isn't normal.