My people

Over the past two days I've been making a lot of phone calls across the country dealing with various paperwork issues I've been putting off and I've noticed something about where people are from.

Foreigners are generally annoyed by your existence, probably because they can't understand you and you can't understand them and they just want to do the paperwork and don't really like being on the phone.

Northerners really want you to get to the point. They don't care why you've been putting this off, they don't care what kind of day you're having, they just want your account number and a brief summary of what you need them to accomplish.

I imagine if you're from the North that suits you just fine. You probably want to get down to business too and don't have lots of time to waste on the phone in chit-chat.

But me? I like the Southerners. They talk slow and don't mind taking a little time to be genuinely pleasant. If they're having trouble with the stupid tech people not getting their jobs done, Southerners aren't afraid to tell you on the phone - you, somebody they've never met and will never speak to again. And in return I like to tell them why I took so freaking long to make this phone call and how I surely do appreciate all their help and I'm a teacher, see, and sometimes those kids give me a real hard time but you know they also make you laugh a bit and it's all worth it in the end, dontcha know, honey?

And instead of feeling like I bothered people by calling them at work to do their job, I feel like I just sat down for a glass of iced tea with some pleasant neighbor on her front porch and when we were done talking she mailed me some forms.