For anybody out there looking for something interesting to read today, here's a fun story about me that always proves to be a solid ice breaker! So as many of my friends know, I have a very basic cell phone number. It is cool to look at, and easy to remember. Since I got my first cell phone at the age of 12, it has been a random, but signature feature about me that people find amusing whenever we exchange numbers.
So, the only issue that seemed to arise from me having this number was the far too frequent calls that I would get asking for a taxi. Multiple times a week, I would get calls from random numbers saying, "Hey can I get a cab at..." I would always reply with the, "sorry this isn't a cab service anymore" speech, after which I was normally met with an aggravated asshole bitching at me because they needed a cab. When someone was being a major dick, I would potentially mess with them, or if I was lazy, hit them with the, "Sorry yo, I'm 12, and really can't help you." That usually ended most of those conversations rather quickly.
Even after a few years of having the same cell phone number, I still received these calls all the time. It was a mystery as to why these random people weren't getting the memo that the number got changed years ago. However, this mystery was finally solved one summer while I was shopping in the neighboring county of Suffolk. While in the parking lot of the Deer Park Outlets, I noticed off in the distance a Lindy's Taxi Cab (the company callers were always looking for) with my cell phone number on top of it.
This was the moment that I realized the cab company never changed their number. Their customers we're simply forgetting to put in the 631 area code, and calling me by default. Jesus Christ. This of course told me that an end to the dilemma was not in sight, but I at least had instruction to give those who called me on accident. This of course gave birth to my famous quote, "Call this number with 631."
In high school, I ignored most of these calls, but now at my young adult age, calls from random numbers could potentially be important. I never fail to make friends laugh when I pick up my ringing phone and say, "Sorry, you got to call this number with 631."
This past weekend I had an old friend from high school come visit me at college. She burst out laughing after I received a call, and delivered the signature line. "This is still a thing?!?" she yelled while laughing. Yes, Megan. It will always be a constant in my life.
That actually, is precisely the reason that the calls don't irritate me so much. Throughout life, things are always changing. College isn't permanent. Friend groups aren't permanent. Jobs aren't permanent either. These stupid phone calls, oddly enough, are in fact permanent. I grew up with them. They were interrupting my neighborhood wiffle ball games when I was younger. They were around when I started going on my first dates. Now they're a comical phenomenon amongst my friends in college as well. There will always be people dialing without an area code for some reason, and they will always call me!
In a way, having such a simple, annoying constant in my life is just plain funny, and so whenever my mom would ask me if I wanted to change my number, I would always say no. Who needs to deal with the drama of changing a number anyway?
