Caller ID

Dear Mom,

Cleaned two houses today, a new client in the morning and Timi in the afternoon. The new lady was referred by Melissa and she's very nice. When I walked in I asked her what she needed. She said, "Honey, whatever you do is just fine with me." We chattered like magpies just about the whole time. When I left she said, "This is the first time we've met, right? I feel like we've known each other for some time." I did too, she's that easy to talk to. Went home and had a nice grilled cheese sandwich Don made for me and went on to the second house. Kinda draggin' by the end of the day but sitting in front of the computer listening to Bonnie Raitt and Nora Jones singing "Tennessee Waltz" fixes me right up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzDUi_L6MzA

When I was a kid we had a rule at the dinner table, we didn't answer the phone while we were eating. If the phone rang, we just let it ring. For the short period of time we were sitting at the table, people could just wait to talk to us. If it was important they would call back.

I don't know how or when it started, but generally speaking when the phone rang I knew if the call was important and, over time, was fairly accurate in "guessing" who was on the other end. It became a game we started to enjoy. At the dinner table if the phone rang, everyone looked at me and I would try to guess who it was or if it felt important enough to answer the phone. There seemed to be one restriction, though; if I didn't know the person calling, I couldn't guess who it was. If it was someone I knew, I could almost always say who was calling. A sense of urgency or emergency about the call would make me very uneasy and I'd say, "Go ahead, pick it up" and Dad would go answer. He thought it was cool that I was usually right and we never thought anything of it. The ability faded with time, it never impressed me much.

Years later I recounted the story to various people who got a little excited and told me it was a sign of psychic ability. Had I investigated my abilities? Had I done research and found out how to develop this talent? They told me they'd really 'gotten into' this kind of thing and would give anything for a bit of natural psychic ability to develop and utilize. I still wonder why, it just seemed quite natural and fun at the time. One thing does impress me a little, though.

We had Caller ID-in 1964.

I love you,

Lisa