Phone: How Not to do it

Ring ring.

Me: Hello?

Some Dude: Hello?

Me: Yes?

SD: Uh, I got a call.

Me: ....

SD: What city is this?

Me: I'm in New York. ...Did you get a message?

SD: I saw a missed call and this area code.

Me: (rolling my eyes hard enough to roll right onto the floor) ...Do you have a student at Such-and-Such School?

SD: Such...and...Such...School? Naw.

Me: Okay, then I don't know what to tell you...

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Yesterday, I made some phone calls to parents. You know, like you do. I had gotten a number from a kid and I called it. Makes sense, right? Left a message, etc.

An hour or so later, I got a call from a number. "Yes, you called my daughter but the person you called didn't get the message because I'm in New York and you're in Washington." Um, huh?
It actually took like five full minutes for it to be clear that this woman was trying to say that I had the wrong number. Even though it wasn't actually *her* that got the call and even though the kid had given me the number not three hours earlier. Strange, right?

So of course, this morning when I was in the office, I heard a secretary ask if someone had called this particular child's mom because she called back.

Aha!

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The Phone: It's Really Not That Hard, People!