Westi,
About an hour ago, I was online, when Brian came pestering me about wanting to call Nickelodeon as they were doing a giveaway. They were giving away Legos. My first inclination was to say something to the effect, "Forget it Brian, what are the chances you are going to win??" That was really what I wanted to say. I didn't say that, I simply said, "no." He said, "awww, but Mom I even have the number right here." He then showed me the paper where on the side he had scribbled down the number. Then I reflected back on my own childhood. I remember always wanting to call the radio stations to try and win, and my Mom always let me. Of course there was no computer back then for me to cut into her computer time!! <smiles> Contrary to my initial thought, I signed off the computer and told him he could try calling. Of course I was still thinking he had a better chance of getting struck by lightening, than winning anything. But at least if I let him try, he couldn't blame it on me for not winning. It was surprising how excited he was about just the opportunity to try. Off he went to the phone. He dialed several times, before asking me if I would do it for him. With that question, I held my resolve, and told him "no, he was quite capable of dialing it himself." He continued to dial the number, again and again and again, each time it was busy. Finally, thinking I wanted to get back online, I told him, "enough, give it up." Again he pleaded his case, "please Mom, just one more time." I caved, telling him, go on you can try again." After a few seconds he happily said, "Mom, it's ringing." Being the skeptic that I am at times, my thought was, bet he dialed the wrong number. He held on, letting the phone ring. I think I would have hung up, long before he did. Next he reported to me, that he had gotten a message saying that, all the operators were busy, to hold and they would answer the call. He didn't tell me if they had identified Nickelodeon when they answered the call, so again being the skeptic that I am about these things, I still thought maybe he had the wrong number. He sat there patiently on hold for a long long time. I think I would have hung up, and I was tempted to tell him to hang up, but then thought, for what reason should he hang up. I left him sitting in the dining room, on hold, I went to the basement to do some laundry. I was in the laundry room folding clothes, when Brian comes downstairs saying, "Mom, they need my zip code." I told him our zip code, which he repeated, followed by the first three digits of our telephone number. I realized that what he needed was the area code, not the zip code. (Believe it or not, where we live we do not yet need to dial the area code to complete a local phone call.) Brian ask me to tell the information to the person on the phone. You can imagine, I thinking to myself, who did he give our family information to. Sure enough it was the Nickelodeon operator, Brian had indeed won a set of Legos. I was so happy for him. Thank God he is not as much of a skeptic as I am. Maybe this was a lesson in perseverance that I needed to learn!!
Smiling,
Jane |
