214 - Leave me the hell alone!

Thought this was funny. Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary is resigning. The article insinuates its because she was in charge of the party where that stupid couple crashed the White House and shook hands with Obama. That's not the funny bit. This is the funny bit...:

"Rogers, 50, told the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday that she was leaving because she had achieved a major goal of the Obamas: turning the White House into the "people's house" by opening it up to many of those who normally do not get to visit."

Mission accomplished! And 'people's house'... don't even go there. It's called The White House.

Read Robyn's blog about how to tell a gal's not into you and it reminded me of the lengths I once went to to get a guy to leave me alone... I have a devious mind, you just don't know... I would feel bad, but honestly, he pissed me off.

This guy was one of my best friends, but something happened between us and I told him I needed time to think things over. I told him I would call him when I was ready to talk. Two days later, he called me. I ignored the call. He called again. I ignored the call again. He called up to seven times a day for a month, and I never picked up. At this point I wasn't confused anymore, I was angry, and he was pissing me off even more by not respecting my boundaries, but also not getting the point -- when you call repeatedly and no one ever picks up, maybe the person you're calling doesn't want to talk to you.

I had a nifty iMac, it was very cutting edge at the time. It had a program that would read, out loud in a computerized voice, whatever you typed in. I typed in, "We're sorry... the number you have dialed has been disconnected and is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this message in error, please hang up and try your call again." I somehow got it on my answering machine and told my friends what I'd done so they wouldn't fall for it. I waited with anticipation... would this work? Could this be the answer to my problem?

He called.

He got the recording.

He hung up.

He called back.

He got the recording.

He hung up.

I guess he finally realized that the very beginning of the message, the three annoying tones that hurt your eardrums, weren't playing... and he caught on. Guess he wasn't a total dumbass. He laughed and said, "That's hilarious! For a while there I thought you'd actually changed your number! You're so funny..." (guess he was...)

So I changed my number. Annoyed to all hell that I had to do it. You know what it's like when you change your number... it's tedious.

After that, he called a friend of mine. She didn't answer. Like me, she avoided his calls (thank you caller ID!). One day a mutual friend of ours happened to be there when he called. She got fed up, picked up the phone and told him none of us wanted to talk to him. Then she hung up.

Months later, on Valentine's Day, he called my cell phone. I don't know why he didn't plague my cell with calls when he was barraging my home phone, but he didn't. I didn't recognize the number, just knew it was his area code, but dutiful daughter that I am, I thought maybe my parent's car might have broken down and they were calling for me to come pick them up. So I answered. He caught me by surprise. He said something, and I hung up. That's the last I heard from him. I guess he finally got the point. Took him almost a full year.

It may sound cold, but he deserved it. I have my limits, and if you push me too far, I have a cold streak. If he would have just given me space, I would have eventually called him, and while the outcome would have been the same (out of my life), I wouldn't have avoided him like I did. As time went on I guess it almost became a game to see how long he would perservere before he got the hint and gave up.

So there's one to add to your list Robyn: When a gal actually records the "we're sorry" message just to get you to stop calling...