It might have been just me, but growing up, my folks put a lot of restrictions on soda and TV. We basically got soda once a week as I recall, and we could watch TV on Saturday mornings and most days after school, but we couldn't watch PG13 or R movies and we couldn't watch TV late at night. In fact, we couldn't stay up late -- I remember getting caught reading in bed by flashlight so many times and getting in trouble (and then later, when I got to high school, getting caught on the phone after bedtime).
So of course if I was at a friend's house, I would suck down gallons of soda, watch Nightmare on Elm Street, and stay up as late as I could.
I feel like I'm perpetually at a friend's house now that it's 2018. I know I posted about this before, but I am so DUCKING HAPPY not to have to check my voicemail every day I'm in the office anymore! That was seriously a painful resolution. It's now Friday morning, I'm sitting on a conference call, and my voicemail light has been on since Monday at 10:35 -- and best of all, I have no idea who the message is from!
I know, I know, I actually really do need to check it. It's kind of part of my job. But I feel like I'm rebelling. Maybe I'll give myself through the month of January to recover from my 2018 resolution, and then I'll try to get back in the habit of not letting it sit for more than 2-3 days?
haha - that is great.
ReplyDeleteI look at it this way - anyone who has a legitimate reason to get in touch with me has (a) my personal cell phone # of >20 years (b) my work cell # (c) one of my personal emails (d) my work email (e) my home phone # (f) my FB/IG/Twit account ... or heck, even the address I will have lived at for 10 years come April. So I have absolutely zero stress about that little red light.
Interesting I got THREE voice mails last week! Of course they were (1) our CEO with financial results (I actually love that he does this and HOW he does it), (2) our research senior VP with Black History Month kickoff info and (3) same VP with updated info on an exploratory research symposium being held last Friday.
So again, nothing I really needed ... because all three also came through email and only one had a personal touch.
As for childhood, I grew up at a time when those ratings things were still pretty new and mostly ignored. I saw (all in theaters) Monty Python 'And Now for Something Completely Different' at 8, 'Holy Grail' at 9, Jaws at 9, Halloween at 12, Airplane and Caddyshack at 14 and so on. Same for TV ...
As for phone - there was one in the kitchen, and the coiled cord wasn't long enough to get to anyone's room. :)
I always freak out a little when I get a VM from our CEO -- it's never been personal, just a mass VM to all, but for a split second, I always panic about what I could have screwed up that could have made it all the way to the top...
DeleteI have a work cell, no office phone. I keep the ringer off at all times unless I am expecting a call from a doctor's office. We have 24-48 hours to return calls. I check the phone periodically. Patients often call because there is a problem and sometimes they are a bit heated. Listening to the message gives me a chance to respond more effectively. Often by the time I call back people have calmed down and I have information to offer.
ReplyDeleteI think my parents tried to abide by movie ratings, but I did watch Stephen King and Nightmare on Elm Street movies around age 13. Like Michael, I also saw Airplane, Caddyshack, and Jaws before I was 17. I do remember getting caught as a teenager trying to sneak into a rated R movie.
Soda was reserved for birthday parties and pizza night. There is never soda in my house now. My son only drinks it when he goes to friends' houses or birthday parties which drives me a little crazy.
We had a really long cord on our wall phone growing up. My mom talked on the phone a lot especially while she cooked and cleaned. Now I don't even have a home phone.