I am totally overwhelmed by the requests for the password! WOW! I have tried to keep up with the requests but I am sure I’ve missed some. TONS went to junk mail (I think I got them all). If you asked and I know you but you haven’t heard from me yet, let me know!

I was also really clear that I was really only interested in sharing the password with people I know and trust: those whose blogs I have followed or who have exchanged emails with me privately at some point, at a MINIMUM those who have friends in common with me. But still? I have had a bunch of requests from people who basically appeared out of thin air. We don’t know any of the same people, they don’t have a blog, they have never emailed or even commented on my blog. Some were downright rude about it! I’m sorry but this is my family’s personal life here. A life that has been extorted and used against us in the past AND present! You’ll understand if I’m cautious. I plan to continue blogging publicly just as often as I always did. I’m not password protecting my blog - just certain topics. I don’t mind keeping the windows into my world open. Just not all of them, all the time. Fair enough?

Speaking of a window inside, I have had an ongoing issue that I just can not figure out how to resolve. My cell phone number which I’ve had for over a year is being used by other people. Frequently. I know it isn’t unusual to have a few random calls when you first get a recycled phone number but this has just gone on and on and there is evidence that these are NEW uses. I guess they could be errors, I guess they could be wrong numbers. But I get a lot. Several a day. More than the actual legitimate calls I get OR make!

Usually they are annoying - like the entire voicemail box full of hold music for the local hospital that I got to listen to yesterday or the warranty company for a car I do not own calling to tell the owner that their warranty is about to expire. Other times they are useless to me - like the MANY times I get voicemails entirely in Spanish, a language I do not speak. But sometimes they really are enough of a glimpse into other people’s worlds that I can’t decide if I want more info or wish I never heard at all.

Sometimes I get bill collectors calling and offering up WAY too much information about someone who is not me but who has not paid her medical bills and is about to get sued. Sometimes they leave identifying information about salaries, employment history, relatives, etc. Man would I be pissed if a collector were calling the wrong number and randomly leaving such messages about MY life.

One time, though, there was a small child’s voice in my mailbox. The child was leaving a message for her mother who had apparently ran away from the family in the recent past. The child was worried, missed her Mom and begged for her to come home. She just wanted to know if she was OK. It was awful, heartbreaking. And all I could think of was that this poor child thought she had half a chance of connecting with her deadbeat Mom but instead she just got my voicemail and never even knew it! Her Mom never even knew the impact of her actions on this child. I wonder what happened with that family?

Yesterday I got a voicemail that was equally disturbing because it sounded very much like the man on the line had said my name at the beginning of the message. He sounded old or sick or drunk. Not well, by any account. He talked about missing his family and how he would not or had not seen them in 3 years 10 months and 7 days and how he missed his granddaugther, his BABY, and this was his one shot to tell them how much he loved them still. I thought he sounded like an old man on his death bed. My best freind D~ thought he sounded like a bumbling old man drunk-calling. Tony thought he sounded like a jailbird calling his relatives, counting down the days until he was released. We’ll never know the real details, of course, but it doesn’t stop us from speculating.

I realized recently that I don’t think I ever created a voicemail message. It is just the standard fare, default computer voice, I believe. I am considering creating a custom message that goes a little something like this:

“Hi this is Nicki’s cell phone. Nicki BRADLEY. I do not owe any debts. I do not have any medical appointments. I do not have a long lost grandfather and I have not abandoned my children. In fact I don’t even use, much less give out, this number unless I really need it! So if you aren’t one of my 5 friends who has this phone number, you probably have the wrong number. And if you ARE one of my 5 friends who has this phone number, you should know better and you should just call me at home because my cell phone is probably dead or in my purse. Better yet, just email me. Thanks!”.

Doesn’t that just make you want to call me and chat?!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Venting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.