Ringing in the Night

Last night was one of those nights that can be panic inducing. At about 2:30 am I heard my cell phone ringing down the hall in my office. I figured it must be a wrong number or someone who would leave a message. But, a few seconds later, it rang again. So I got out of bed and trudged down the hall to my office, well prepared to take the head off any idiot calling at that time of night without a good reason.

When I looked, the calls were from L. The worry ticker started up right away. It is not usual for L to call at that time of night, let alone be up and about then. I immediately called back to see what was going on, picturing some really disastrous event of happenstance, maybe even a death of someone we knew. So can you guess what brought on these multiple calls in the wee hours of the morning?

L had called to tell me that at least one of the scenes with L and the Son as extras in a movie (that was shot here several years ago and just released) survived the editors knife. L and the Son had downloaded the movie and just finished watching it and noted that the scene was preserved and I was thanked (in the rather anonymous form of "Thanks to the Mayor of XYZ").

That was indeed interesting news, but it clearly didn't warrant the heart attack side-effects of calling me repeatedly at that time of the night. At least not from my point of view. Needless to say, my response fell a bit below the level of excitement desired by L. It was the kind of news that I would have dropped an email about and called it good - especially in the middle of the night.

As any married man knows, failing to display the desired amount of enthusiasm when called by your wife any time of the day or night is punishable by freezing to death. It makes no difference that you had been in bed for hours and had to be up in several more. It even makes no difference if you are in the middle of a meeting deciding the fate of the universe as we know it. You should always be prepared to exhibit the precise amount of excitement desired. Otherwise, the icicles coming out the phone may very well cause brain damage or even death.

Took me hours to warm back up.