alas . . .

One of the things that I hate most in the world is poor phone etiquette. By this, I don't mean talkining on the phone at inappropriate times (like in the movies) or having your cell go off during a quiet time (again, the movies is a good example). These things annoy me, but they don't piss me off nearly as much as the following:
a) telling someone that you'll call them and not following through
b) failure to return a call when someone leaves a message which says explictly, "please call me back."
c) screening calls in an effort to avoid potentially awkward conversations

My ex was notorious for all of these kinds of behavior, and it was both the most obnoxious and most painful of his regular behaviors. I say regular to distinguish these from his cheating, which was both far more obnoxious and painful, but happened irregularly (as far as I know).

But my ex is not the only one guilty of bad phone behavior. There are scores of people in my life who practice these habits on an annoying regular basis. Take, for example, my friend D. It was his birthday over the weekend, so on Monday, i called him, both to wish him a happy birthday and to see if he wanted to get together for happy hour at one of the local watering holes (this, after a conversation a few days earlier along the lines of, "hey, we should check out the happy hour at XBar again sometime soon). In no way was this to be construed as anything more than friends, but has he called me back? Of course not. It's as if I have been stricken with leprosy and no one has bothered to tell me.

What is the problem? How difficult is it to phone back, or if that's too hard, to send a quick email? Either my friend is an innconsiderate clod and I've somehow failed to notice before now (possible), I've done something to offend (unlikely since we almost never see each other), or he's doing something that he thinks I'll disapprove of like dating one of his students or former students (sadly, also possible, and if I'm betting, my money's on this one).

On a completely unrelated note, got word back from advisor regarding upcoming conference paper, and he think's it's good. My advisor is rather stingy with the praise, so for him to say "It's shaped up nicely and you should feel confident sending it out" roughly translates to "You are the most brilliant student I've ever had! It rocks!" Well, perhaps I exaggerate a little bit, but it's high praise indeed. Have started to get other papers for the conference, and while I've printed them out, am refraining from reading them though, because I'm kind of afraid that if I read them before sending my own out, it will send me into a downlward spiral of a neurotic inferiority complex . . . and who needs that, really?

But in 12 days, I'll be on my way . . . and in 5 the paper has to be fine-tuned to death and out of my hands either way. I'm aiming to send it off before then. And yet "July," despite the fact that it's almost half over, still seems like a mere speck on the horizon.

And finally, my Coffee Bean sighting of the day:
Henry Simmons
(Det. Baldwin Jones from NYPD Blue)