I phoned a friend for her birthday and got a voice asking me to leave a message. That caught me on the back foot - I hadn't prepared for such an eventuality. Should I be a coward and just end the call? But then she might wonder who had called and it's always annoying to go through the palaver of retrieving your messages, only to find the coward hadn't left one!
The beep sounded and I wracked my brains for an appropriate, meaningful and heartwarming birthday message, but all I could come up with was a few ums, ahs and a totally insincere-sounding platitude. I felt so embarrassed to have it associated with me that I almost called back to apologise.
I'm not usually stuck for something to say, but there's something about a robotic voice that throws me off balance. Maybe it's because I don't like interacting with machines. I think I should prepare myself in future and keep a list of suitable messages and greetings stuck on the wall of my workspace so that I can snap one off at a moment's notice and appear cool and calm at all times.
Then again, that just wouldn't be me.
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