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It is excessively frustrating to keep saying something and have it continually ignored. I’d get snippy too.
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I was just reading somewhere (here?) that stressed-out people are more likely to believe conspiracy theories. That seems to be what happened to Jess’ mom. The whole world, she thinks, is against her: her daughter plays head games with her, her husband will blame her if the groceries aren’t picked up, and now this rando she mis-dialled is playing even worse head games with her.
And now what are Brad and his parents going to think?
Of course, all these people are really innocent, but she can’t see it that way. She’s trying to keep things in order, and instead she’s sabotaging any chance of getting more organisation into her life.
I don’t see a stupid woman. I see a woman who cannot cope. At best, after several weeks of finally getting enough sleep, she may be able to laugh about this. Unfortunately she may have a heart attack before that happens.
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Why do I think from the texts that this woman is one of those people?
Fixated on an idea, short tempered, doesn’t like to admit she’s wrong…not the kind of person who would stop to make sure their address book is current. The kind of person, in fact, who keeps a list on paper on the kitchen wall and frequently misdials.
In my experience stressed-out people usually get so because they lack organisational skills - such as using their phones to deal with basic tasks like keeping address lists up to date, remembering appointments, and getting to places. Once you create time to RTFM, you gain the ability to create more free time and so on.
Unfortunately some people confuse being chaotic and disorganised with being busy and achieving things. I had a CEO like that once. He tended to react rather like this woman. The outcome was that in one month he lost the CTO, the CFO and the heads of purchasing and HR, which probably didn’t reduce his stress levels very much.
6 Likes
Your posts on guns are extremely funny. You should make them into a stand up routine.
(Lest I be misconstrued, I am English and this is the sort of remark which in some circles passes for the English sense of humour, which we spell differently to distinguish from the American kind. But apart from the guns, I usually like your posts.)
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“My mom knows my number”
I laughed. Couldn’t give a crap if it is real or not.
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Dear Weekendlites:
I would like to thank you personally for this comment,
“Jesus, loosen the bone Wilma.”
I am laughing so hard I am coughing and tears are running down my cheeks.
I really needed this.
Again. thank you. If we ever meet in person I will purchase you a glass of cactus cola.
LLAP,
Spocko
3 Likes
Who’s “upset?”
Th content of the post and the ‘humor’ therein is obviously debatable; some people think its funny and some don’t… but the way you’ve chosen to engage others over something so trivial really speaks volumes about your own perceptions.
9 Likes
That reads as victim-blamey to me. People who are overwhelmed don’t have the energy or unmelted synapses to RTFM. They just have a soundtrack playing in their head shouting THERE’S NO TIME FOR THAT over and over again.
I’ve seen super-organised people break down, seen the wheels come off. It’s not pretty, especially because they often pride themselves on being organised, and if they can’t be it’s one more stressor.
I mean, look at this mom’s responses. The guy keeps trying to tell her she was a wrong number, and you can practically see her brain going, “does not compute” and rejoining with a negative stimulus to get her desired outcome. She cannot deal with third options at all. That’s not someone who has the cycles to update her contact list.
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I had debt collectors do that when I got someone else’s (landline) number. “No, I really am not Mary X. Smith. Yes, I am positive.”
Dodged a bullet there.
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Here’s my story
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No. As a manager it was my job to identify the problem, and identify solutions. Most people are not actually taught organisational skills and time management. But it can be taught. I can honestly say I have never fired anybody for having poor organisational skills; though I did once create a two-position post to allow a talented individual to do his work alongside someone with excellent organisational skills to do the organisation and management that he had been unable to do, because of Ricardo’s Principle.
I don’t know if what we taught at work translated to the home but I hope it did.
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Thank you. Though I cannot take credit for the line. I just remembered it from a comedian, a number of years ago. I want to say Steven Wright but IIRC the source was a bit more acerbic than Steven.
Thank you for that. It seems to fit the conspiracy theorists I know personally.
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Funny, I told my wife that I think we’d do well buying lower priced homes in the area and fixing them up - Lake Arrowhead is really far from us - but she’s not into it. Even though she hates working a corporate job more than anything…
We know good contractors already and know the city neighborhoods very well, too.
If we had started several years ago like I suggested just doing one at a time she’d have been able to quit her job and manage that by now.
1 Like
I had some guy’s grandma call me once a month for about a year. I told her it was the wrong number which baffled her. After a few months of that we began chatting sometimes for up to half an hour. Eventually, she either passed away or got her grandson’s real number because I just stopped receiving the calls.
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That’s both heartwarming and very sad (not knowing what happened to her, I mean).
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Jess might be my new hero. Because what kind of epic shit has she pulled in the past for her mom to believe she would take it that far, just over picking up bread?
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I wanted to check on her but I thought that might be creepy and this was when phones didn’t keep call history very long so eventually I lost the number.
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