I'm Not Quite Sure What You're Doing

This morning, at about 7:30am, my cellphone rang. Of course I assumed it was devoted partner's cellphone because no one calls my cellphone because the very few people in the world who have the number know a) I don't answer it and b) it's hardly ever charged. I didn't get to the phone in time and I didn't recognize the number so I tossed the phone back in my bag. This shocked devoted partner who is the kind of person who calls people's numbers on his phone regardless of whether or not he recognizes the number.

I told him that only about a dozen people have the number, all of those people have our home phone number, and that all would either leave a message or call the house having gotten no answer on the cell. That it was obviously a wrong number and why do I want to spend time calling a wrong number back to verify that it's a wrong number. Which I guess brings me to the crux of this: I don't much like talking to people on the phone.

Sure, Ed and I can waste several millennia talking about absolutely nothing (Dear blogger spell check: Really? You don't think "millennia" is a word? You're retarded!) And I'm generally happy to talk to the people I already know and like, but more often than not I'd prefer to be contacted by carrier pigeon. When the house phone rings and it is for devoted partner, 99 out of 100 times I'll toss him the phone as opposed to answering it and then passing it on. I think this might be rude, but I do have a lot of knitting to work on and I can't be all distracted by making small talk.

This lengthy preamble is, of course, to my complaint of every day: mobile communication on public transport. The thing is, all of you (general, not specific) seem to LOVE to talk to people on your tiny phones and go blind and carpal tunneled by typing emails on your tiny phones. And I don't get it. At you home or office, presumably you have larger communication implements, a more comfortable chair, and privacy. Wouldn't you like to do your business/complain about your redecorating/talk about how wild it was at the bar last night in those places? This morning it wasn't so much that people were loud, they weren't, it's that everywhere I turned people were heavily invested in clickety clacking their toys in a way I am just flummoxed by.

I love my train ride because it is neither work nor home. I actually find it relaxing (when I'm not elbowing people out of my way to gain access to the seats they were saving for their laptop bags). Either I am really mellow, or other people are really really not. The thing, and forgive me for harping on it, is that if my job was such that on the 9:04 train I needed to be doing so much work, that would indicate to me that perhaps I'm not getting to my office on time. If I took an earlier train, by 9:04, I'd already be at my office typing emails and fielding phone calls. Using the train as a makeshift office seems not only rude, but (and I'm really surprised we don't hear more of this) potentially litigious.

So I ask ye of clickety clacking habits to try and shed some light on this for me. My iToy is a last resort to entertain me when there's simply no elbow room to do anything else. All thing being equal, I just don't want to communicate or be communicated with at every moment of the day. So help me to understand what I am obviously missing.

And please don't ever call me at 7:30am unless we a) have plans or b) you know that a missile is headed for my house.