Mom’s Urgent Phone Call

May 04

I live in Seattle, which is three hours behind Michigan in time zones. Normally when my mom calls, it’s later in the morning on the weekends or in the afternoon if it’s a weekday. She almost never calls too early because she knows about the time difference. Were she to actually phone me up earlier than 9 am, I’d assume it would be due to a family emergency or something urgent.

Last month I was in Colorado for work (which is two hours behind Eastern Standard Time), and I was driving to the office when my phone started to ring. I fished it out of my purse and saw, to my surprise, that it was my mom. It was about 7:30 am PST and 8:30 in Colorado, on a weekday no less, so getting a phone call from Mom at this hour during the week was highly unusual.

My mind immediately started to race with worst-case-scenario thoughts. Was someone injured or dead? Is Mom sick? What’s going on? I hesitated, then picked up the phone.

Me: “Hello?

Mom: “Hi honeyyyyyyy! What you doing?”

Me: “Uh, I’m in Colorado this week. I’m driving to work.”

Mom: “Oh, you in Colorado?”

Me: “Yeah…”

Mom: “You on your way to work now?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Mom: “Okay! …I’m driving too! Running errands.”

Me: “Okay…” At this point I was wondering what the hell she was calling me for. It’s not like I don’t enjoy talking to my mom, especially considering how unintentionally hilarious she is, but this type of call was highly unusual.

Mom: “I got a question for you.”

Ah, so now the call makes sense. She needs me for something.

Me: “Okay.”

This disease is characterized by http://downtownsault.org/soo-theatre-project/ price of cialis painful and prolonged erection that lasts for more than 4 hours, you must seek an emergency help. Most of female along shop viagra with male patients complained of odd side-effect. In addition to that, the medication is available at a fraction of the discount levitra purchasing here price of the branded version, it might be more effective too. There’s a lot of hype surrounding generic drugs viagra vs generic these days. Mom: “How you spell ‘promise’?”

Me: “…what?” Seriously, she called me up early in the morning to ask me how to spell a word?

Mom: “I sending card to Kuhrt’s niece. On my way to post office.”

Me: “P-R-O-M-I-S-E.”

Mom: “Okay, p…e…r…m…s…e…d.”

Me: “What? No, P-R-O-M-I-S-E.”

Mom: “…p…r…i…m…s…e…d.”

Since she stuck a ‘d’ at the end both times she spelled the word back to me, I figured she really wanted to know how to spell “promised” instead of “promise,” so I altered my spelling on the next attempt.

Me: “P…”

Mom: “p…”

Me: “R…”

Mom: “r…”

And so on. On the fourth try she got it right.

Mom (pleased): “Okay, I write ‘We promised to come visit soon.”

Me: “…..uh, okay.” Crap, she did want ‘promise’, after all. Oh well.

One comment

  1. Lucy Kumuhone /

    OMG! My mom too! I’m her speller. She calls me every time she wants to send me a package of funky mothball smelly clothes other junk around the house including random candies she has lying around the house. I have to painstakingly spell out my last name which she refuses to spell out. I have sent her address labels to alleviate my situation but she does not use them. I eventually just told her to hang up the phone and wait for her phone to make a beep and then to press open or read. I taught her how to accept a text message and no more spelling for me! :-)))

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