The Long Goodbye?
"Abrupt" - I suspect that's the word daughter-in-law-2-be is searching for when she gripes about how quickly I hang up the telephone. We have this conversation often enough that it's made me wonder, so I’ve done some soul-searching.
I think the long goodbye is in the genes. I’ve heard others in the family say that my little niece has the same affliction. As a toddler, she’d take the phone into the closet to avoid being caught, would hit the special speed-dial number, phone her grandparents, then say goodbye when she knew she was busted, whether her Nannie or Poppa were ready or not.
As a young mother on her way to work, I hated going through the emotional wrench of leaving #1 son with a babysitter, so there were no tearful, drug out partings. Now that I’m older, however, we’ve had the discussion – “You leave my plug alone – I’ll let you know when it’s time to say goodbye.”
Long goodbyes in books tend to piss me off as well. Once an author hits that denouement, say good-friggin’-bye, the end, fare thee well, ya know? Don’t look like Michael Jackson on his save-the-world poster, don’t grate on my nerves like the ending of a Carson McCullers book, and don’t leave a taste in my mind of The Smashing Pumpkins doing the cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”, just kiss me softly and leave, please.
Still. If I’m guilty of cutting you off when you try saying goodbye to me, I apologize. It’s either like herpes, terminal baggage we pick up at some careless point in our lives, or it’s a genetic thing. Like diabetes. It just hangs on whether we like it or not, but it’s nothing personal.
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Now…for a joke Janet sent me.
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A little boy goes to his father and asks "Daddy, how was I born?" The father answers, "Well, son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said: You've got male.
posted by Bobbie (Sunny) Cole @ 7:35 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Now that was cute. Loved the joke. And whose baby is that? He/she is SO adorable!!
Thanks. No clue who that baby is - he (supposedly a he - lol) was part of the joke sent to me. Killer good looks, huh?
Love the joke, lol...
And agree about the little devil's-spawn baby! Adorable!
We leave and say goodbye in this family so often we don't have time for long goodbyes - a running joke in our family is to drive in front of the airport, toss out the bag, slow down slightly so the person can jump out and then we don't have to pay parking! (WE don't really, but sometimes it seems like it! LOL)
A short good bye is better than none at all. My MIL just hangs up the phone. I'm always still talking.
Anyhow.
LOL
Love the 'you've got male'! Too cute!
I'm with you, Mer.
Sam, I think Jess thinks I hang up on her when she is still talking. eeek...
Somehow, once someone says g'bye, I just think okay, bye, no more, nada, that's it - poof. - lol - I guess I figure if they had anything else to say that they'd have said it before they said goodbye or somethin'. *sigh*
I'm at least conscious of it now - lol.
Great to hear from you!
That baby is gonna be a devil when he grows up. Just look at that smile.
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