Well, I called her. I called SHG.  At least the number she gave me – which was a Sprint number. i think she said she had Sprint on her cell phone. I left a voice mail. That’s all I can do…

It’s funny because it got me thinking – about the fact that its been so long since I’ve had to make that first call. So long, in fact that the last time i had to make that “first call” – cell phones weren’t such a everyday part of our lives. In fact, I don’t think I got my first cell until ’98 or ’99. Which brings me to the crux of this entry;

I re-recorded my voice mail message for her probably three or four times. Not because I forgot anything, but I wanted it to sound good. That’s the beauty with digital voice mail on cell phone carriers. one doesn’t have to make multiple calls to fix a message, as you see Mikey struggle with in the above clip.

Before digital voice mail, callers had one shot to get a message right, lest they look pathetically desperate, like Mikey in Swingers.  what about the days before caller ID?  Before answering machines?  That first phone call was much more of a crap-shoot in those days.  any number of things could have gone wrong.

Although all the amenities we have today are nice, but they eliminate nearly all external factors.  In the 21st century, if she doesn’t call back, it’s all due to one undeniable conclusion: she doesn’t want to.

God bless the digital age.  All in all, I wasn’t terribly happy with the final result, so we’ll see. As I said, I did all I could do. I called her.

And I’ll never have to ask “What if”?

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• End of Voice Mail? (markpatten.me)