'Have you told your friends that your tea tastes like tea?' by Kara
Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 9:39 AM

One of the reasons I really hate telemarketers is that they really give you a hair trigger on Saturday mornings.

Well, okay, they're not telemarketers. I'm on whatever Do Not Call lists there are, and I don't ever give out my phone number anywhere, so I've managed to steer clear of those. However, I've got three things against me:

1. This is an election year
2. I have student loans
3. I recently got a traffic ticket

These three things have provided people I don't care about (recorded political messages from all sides, other student loan people who want me to switch, and auto insurance companies who don't care what I did) with everything they need to give me a hard time on a Saturday morning. And now, I do get important calls, mainly being appointment reminders (God, do I get a ton of those), stuff from people I actually do give money to, and the like. So when I come home from work or get woken up by a phone call first thing on a Saturday, I'd like to not have to pick through everything to find the important stuff.

After spending my last few at-home weekends getting people calling during my precious sleep-in hours and asking me to join various political campaigns or switch my car insurance, I've pretty much run out of steam. I've been having a hard time sleeping and intended to fix that this morning.

And the phone rang.

I trudged out of bed to answer it and give them one of my practiced go-away acts. I figured not a sob story this time, but a disgruntled how-dare-you should do the trick. Sure enough, it was an out-of-state number with no name attached ... from Indiana, no less. All the recorded political messages come from Indiana or Kentucky, in my case.

'Hello ... I need to speak to a Miss ... [dramatic stumble over my name].'

Oof.

'... yes ... I'm afraid you've just woken me up, though. I had been trying to sleep.'

'I'm sorry, but is this Kara?'

'Yes, but look ... I keep getting calls from you people at weird hours of the morning, and I really really don't care what you're selling or who you want me to vote for, so I'd really rather not talk to you.'

'Well, I'm sorry for waking you, but this is Sallie Mae Servicing and we have a question about your account.'

Oops.

Fortunately, a quick apology did it and the lady busted up laughing. Apparently she gets mistaken for a telemarketer a lot -- to which I wished I could say 'It might go over better if you called my cell or work number during work hours, rather than calling at Telemarketer o'Clock and not starting the call saying who you are.' At least I didn't hang up on her, she said, or start screaming at her like some people. Nonetheless, took care of some numbers on my account, and now I'm wide awake.

Maybe a nap in the afternoon. Once I've run long-distance errands.

If you have been, that's not good.