Since family stories seem to be the subject of conversation lately, a new category and another story:

Background: my aunt is old school.  old school in the sense that she prefers the typewritter to a computer. old school in that she thinks voicemail is more efficient than email. Actually, come to think of it, everyone in my family, save myself, believes voicemail is more efficient than email. I’ve often tried to convince them otherwise. Citing facts like one can read faster than one can speak or listen and an increased level of clarity in one’s message. there’s no chance of mixing c’s with d’s or v’s, no m’s vs. n’s, etc. Usually, these arguments are met with wide-eyed-you’re-a-crazy-tech-person look of fear.
Setting: My brother and i are having dinner when his phone rings.  He doesn’t pick up. Immediately after his phone stops ringing, mine starts to ring. That means’ one of two people: my mom or my aunt.  It’s the later. I pick up.

aunt: Jason, next year your cousin christopher goes to college. when do schools usually start?
me:  All schools are different, it depends. Schools on the semester system start around the beginning of september.  schools on the quarter system, usually a month later, but not all semester schools start on the same day, and not all quarter schools start on the same day.

I spend the next few minutes explaining the concept  of semester and quarter systems and that not all schools start on the same day. She’s frustrated. I’m not giving her a straight answer. Straight answer being yes or no. My family gets frustrated with me when i try to give them the truth.

me: for example, columbia traditionally starts the day after labor day.
aunt: so, semester schools start the day after labor day?
me: no, columbia starts the day after labor day. Other semester schools start around that date.
aunt: and schools on quarter systems start a month later? so, october 6th?
me: they start *around* a month later.

The conversation ends with me offering to look up the start dates of various schools and getting back to her on it.

So, the next day (the day before yesterday, actually) i check out various start dates for schools and call her up to relay the fruits of my research, y’know, cause i’m the only one in the family who knows how to use a search box. Anyway, she doesn’t pick up, so i leave a message.
Yesterday, i see my aunt as she’s picking up my cousin from my house. she says unto me:

aunt: Jason, the next time you leave a message, could you speak more slowly?  I had to replay your message three times before i finally understood you.

I sense opportunity.

me: ok. well, i could email it to you next time.

haha! point!

aunt: oh, no! i don’t read my emails

doh.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Life, family story. 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.