I should have gone up to Minneapolis this weekend. There's no time to do it now. I was thinking that with the weather being a little warmer, I wanted to go up and open all the windows in the house up there, but I suppose it can wait another week.
After rehearsal, I got back, made some soup, and then called in to the paper to check the voicemail back. It cheerfully announced that I had fourteen new responses. 14. One-four. I have no idea why.
I was pretty wary after the half-dozen responses I got Friday, but figured that in 14 calls there had to be at least one that might be worth calling.
I sat down with the laptop and started going through them.
The first was from "Larry," the guy who had filled up the message machine with his ramblings yesterday. I think he realized that the thing had cut off the number, and so he called back and left... just the number. I was almost tempted to call him up and tell him, thanks for spending $20 calling me (I think the system is $2.99 a minute when you call in to reply to an ad).
Again, without compromising the privacy of those lovelorn souls who called my ad, here's a rough transcript of the notes I typed on the laptop as these guys talked. Yes, I know that sounds impersonal, but I can't write very quickly by hand and wanted to try not to lose anything. All the names have been changed:
Bruce: works for Xerox, divorced, (one child? unclear) likes sailing, doesn't know anything about classical music, 5'8" 155, 32.
Doug: liked my ad, left own personal ad box number, said it was all I needed to know... what am I a forwarding service?
Luis: not looking for serious, works nights except Monday & Tuesday NO
Michael: nice voice, sounds calm. 29, works downtown, has Bulls tickets (who cares), wants to know if I work (!)
Allan: dronedronedrone get to the point, say something, gee I'm sorry you had problems with the phonemail system, OK, 34, divorced, wife has custody (why are you telling me this?) wants to meet for lunch Tuesday
Mike (different): 33, "ath-a-letic" and "has all his own hair" (glad someone has it!) hobbies are his BMW and his dogs. Puh-lease....
Left no name: 312-XXX-4309. That's all
I could go on, but really, this was getting distressing. I didn't listen to the last five or six messages. I didn't just erase them, of course -- these people did spend good money to call me -- but I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to listen to more of this foolishness. I don't think a single one of these guys actually read my ad. As a writer, that feeling offends me, and I don't think that's a good foot to start on.
Am I going to call any of these guys back? You tell me.
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