you have new messages ...

i love random phone calls. i have a habit of saving voicemails i know i should just get rid of because i love to go back through my electronic files and hear familiar faces in unfamiliar places. i actually just went through and cleared out a ton of messages this morning, as i had to get to a particular message to find a phone number and was greeted with the news that i had "32 saved voice messages."

listening to them, figuring out which ones to delete - it's tough to do. sometimes it's that a particular message was funny. much of the time, they're concert love messages, where a friend is at a concert he/she knew i would have loved, so they call to let me at least hear a bit of it and know that he/she is thinking of me. i've heard some great concerts through the earpiece of my cell phone. radiohead, dmb, mraz, tori, ben folds ... i try to return the favor as much as i can as well. sending becca a message full of gavin's "let's get it on" to satisfy her marvin-craving soul, hearing beth's reaction to the tori-esque tones of charlotte martin and paul's response to hearing "brace yourself" from the hd avalon show makes me love technology and the way you can feel, just for a moment, as if you're right there in the moment - or at least you can hear it.

there are some messages that just cannot be deleted. i have kept a couple of concert messages, particularly those with musicians i've yet to see in person. i also have a message from september, when a certain dear friend risked being one of "those people" and asked a certain favorite musician to say hello to a certain vickie. beth, who was with me when i discovered said message had been left, knew i'd be keeping it for awhile (paul, for the record, i still don't know what you are saying at the end of the message - it never ceases to amuse me).

i had a similarly fun voicemail waiting for me this morning. as i drove back to burlington, i listened to voicemail love from rhode island left the night before during actf debauchery. i smiled as i heard jane inform me of the fact that the drinking theater darlings were thinking of me and missed me. i laughed out loud as i heard a different, familiar voice sing out "vicTORIa - uh uh uh ..." i knew immediately that my favorite amanda had joined the festivities.

after hearing the love, i decided to give it a shot - calling down to rhode island to see if people were yet conscious. fortunately, they were - hungover, but conscious. after catching up a bit, i am now looking forward to a call from tonight's festivities - i told people to drink for me and am sure that that will not be a problem for them.

now, as i prepare to run my various saturday afternoon errands and take on cleaning this place, i smile, thanks to my fellow thespian-minded types in the ocean state ... forget being able to call in cases of emergency and the practicality of cell phones. the reason why they are so handy is so people can know they're loved (or share the love) while they're miles away. keep the calls coming from your adventures, my dear readers. they never cease to bring a smile to my face.