D'oh! Was calling the GF to make sure she managed to get on and off the airplane like she was supposed to. Ringing, ringing, ringing. Then I hear this really gravelly "Hello?" And huh, that's not the GF.→[More:]

Remove cell phone from ear, examine, and Oh Shit, it's A.Y., a former boss for some freelance work I did, and one of the looniest people I've ever worked with. Also, someone who turns every conversation into a laundry list of things wrong with her life. Also, not someone I talk to for fun.

So I quickly hang up. Had I been thinking instead of reacting, I would have said "Sorry, wrong number," and THEN hung up. Because the abrupt hanging up made her look to see whose number that was. And it was mine. So she called me back.

I answer. "Mudpuppie...?" "Uh, yes? "This is A.Y. You just hung up on me!" (Note that I haven't talked to her for over a year; it didn't occur to her that it must have been a mistake.) I apologized, feigned ignorance, said I'd been fumbling with the phone and must have speed dialed her by mistake, didn't realize that I'd dialed/hung up.

She accepted that. And then launched into her list of woes, which include 10 months of unemployment.

It was painful, Metachat. Very painful. It makes me miss the days of actually having to dial a number, instead of relying on the push of a single button.

I have since deleted her number from my phone. Truth be told, I was always worried that would happen, because she was the first entry in my address book.

Now the first entry in my address book is a Metachat person whose number I never use, but keep stored in case of meetup.

Hi, Tangerine. If I mistakenly dial you and there's no meetup imminent, feel free to ignore the call. Or answer, it's okay. Conversation would be much less awkward than the one I just had.