Hang up already.

Back at school again. Seven of my 15 1st grade students showed today. Pretty good. The other class had four. I was so mean that I'm thinking I'll lose at least one more by tomorrow. =) I had to phone one parent to ask if their son was going home on the bus or not and I got to sit through yet another "interesting" answering machine message. Let me first say, at least this child had a working number and he had it memorized! Yes, this is a miracle at my school. Anyway, the voice informed me, "You don't return my calls so I'm not gonna return yours." This burned me up. Especially since it was the first day and she was already wasting my time because she couldn't be bothered to fill out his transportation info. Fortunately (?!) I had my 7 students standing right there so I left a short, emotionless message. Guess what? She didn't return my call. Shocker. Kid went home on the bus per school rules. I can't tell you how many times I have had to listen to rude, offensive or just plain crazy answering machine messages. What are they thinkin'? I've sat through 15 seconds of crappily recorded music (funny how you can still hear the "meaningful words" though!) I've been told that if I'm a crazy b*itch I should hang up (yeah, I should have!) I've sat through messages that sound like those horrific late night tv ads for "personal connections." Aargh...I keep reminding myself, at least there's a working phone number...