Saturday, February 21, 2009

Blind Texting

I am a horrible texter. Most of my friends know this about me, and most have them have gotten a text from me that says some thing like "pmtmdp gnd", which is the same as "sounds good" without the word function turned on. We laugh, and I vow to try harder to be a better texter. As much as I don't prefer text, I understand the ways of the world and that we are a society of texters. I will conform. It may take me 20 minutes to says "lets meet at 7" via text and only 5 seconds to say it on the phone, but I will conform.
Not everyone is as flexible as I am. Some are absolutely texting averse. So averse that they do not even have text capability on their phones. While I think this is ridiculous, I understand and will respect their wishes. I just think they need to alert the rest of us that they will not be receiving or responding to any texts that we, the general texting population, send.
Why my sudden introspection on texting? Well, I recently sent a text that I expected to get a response to, but I haven't, and it is causing me some concern.
I went out on a blind date a few weeks ago. It was fine. Not spectacular, but not horrible either. He was nice, dinner was good, conversation was okay. He called me on Friday of the next weekend, but I already had plans for both Friday and Saturday. Then, he called me the next week to tell me that he was going to be busy the coming weekend, so he wouldn't be calling. I thought "strange, but considerate". Then he called me last Monday at noon to see if I could go to lunch. I was already at lunch when he called, so lunch wasn't going to work for me. All of this contact was pretty much through messages he left on my voicemail.
I didn't ever actually call him back, but after his last message, I sent him a text that said "I already have plans for lunch, but maybe we could get together some other night this week." He had been fairly persistent, so I thought he would take me up on the offer, but at this point I haven't heard back from him. Kind of strange, right?
I was discussing this with some friends, and when I said that I had texted him, they asked if he had ever texted me. No, he hasn't. All contact he has made has been purely voice communication. I have concluded that he doesn't have text, which leads me to believe that he has concluded that I am a total brat who won't call him back. Now, I don't like people to think that I am a brat, but really it is his fault. If you don't have text capabilities on your phone, first, move into the new century, and second make it a point to alert those you are in contact with. Introduce yourself to people with "Hi, my name is Rob, and I don't get text." Treat it like a support group, like "hi, my name is Nicole, and I'm a shopaholic". This solves two problems-we can adjust our communication habits accordingly, and we can help you overcome such a ridiculous problem.

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