don't you think? I know it's a pandemic, people are stressed, we don't always know what's going on in their life, and all, but RUDE is RUDE, and needs to be called out. That is my humble opinion anyway, and heaven knows, I always have one.
My case in point? I invited a friend for dinner and a game of crib recently. I love to play crib; my friend is an excellent player and good company.
Now my friend is attached to his phone. I know that. He answers his phone no matter where or when: he NEVER turns it off, nor would he ever just NOT answer. HEAVEN FORBID... the sky would fall!!!
I was well aware of his phone addiction, but it had never been a problem before, because the conversation was usually just one quick call. Well, Monday night that is NOT what transpired.
We had no sooner sat down to our first course of salad, rolls accompagnied by a glass of wine, when he took a call from his brother-in-law. Five minutes later he hung up, looking sheepish. It wasn't even an important call. We resumed our meal, and had NOT even finished the salad, when his girlfriend called. She calls every day, as she lives in another zone: she does it to keep tabs on him, as she is the jealous type. So he answers, goes upstairs (first signaling that it has to be quiet around him), and proceeds to chat with her for over twenty five minutes. He had no sooner finished with her, when there was a call waiting, from his sister, which he also took. Again, not important. It could have gone to voice mail. All the calls could have. Our evening so far? Five minutes at the table, and over thirty five minutes on phone calls.
By now, I am fuming, but it's only a slow simmer. When he lands back downstairs, I ask him point blank, but very politely, "Could you please turn your phone off now, or at least let it go to voice mail, so we can finish our meal, and enjoy a few games of crib uninterrupted?" His answer, "Oh, no, I have to answer my phone. I can't NOT answer it". He picks up his glass and proceeds to sit down at the table.
Well, that was where I very calmly took the glass of wine out of his hand, handed him his dinner in foil (I was prepared!) and told him that he could take his phone and his dinner, and go home. I told him how rude and disrepectful he was being to me, his friend, and that I had had enough. He refused the food, and left quietly, without even apologizing.
With friends like that? Thinking back, I realized something else had really upset me, even above the unbelievable rudeness. It was that he expected Vimy and I to be quiet while he was talking to the "girlfriend" so she wouldn't know that he wasn't home. ME? QUIET in MY own house? ME, who had her own phone off?
There are limits to my kindness after all. I found that out that night. Readers? Do you agree? Do you have your limits?
