I vant to be left alone

A few weeks ago, the phone company called me with an offer to add call privacy to my line. Basically, it means, unless you identify yourself as a real person and not an autodialer or telemarketer, you’re not getting through. I gotta tell ya, it’s pretty darn cool. I went from getting as many as ten annoying calls a day to three or four a week. And when you work from home, as I do, you’re disturbed by each and every one of those calls.

The thing is, I now need to figure out what to do for my front door. I have the world’s smallest hallway. No, seriously. It’s about 3 feet by 6 feet – wide enough to open the front door and then you have a set of stairs up to the main level of the house. Add the seven trillion shoes I have next to the door, and there’s barely room to turn around, let alone swing around a cat. Worse, with the door closed (and locked…always… I live alone. I ain’t leaving it open for nobody), it’s usually pitch black down there. I’m not sure what they were thinking when they designed my house, but the placement of the patio doors to the balcony and the kitchen window are both blocked by giant walls, meaning that the whole left side of my main level, including the front hallway, are really dark. So, when my front door was being replaced a few months ago, I was given the option of putting a window into the door.  I jumped at the chance and it has made a huge difference as far as lighting up my house. I love that part of it.

The thing is, there’s a giant freaking window in my door. There’s no hiding and pretending I’m not home when someone knocks. It’s not like you can say, oh, I wasn’t home, when the lights are on, there’s music or tv blaring, and you can see right into my living room from the front door. (i do most of my work sitting on the couch with my laptop, so you kinda can’t miss me)

And again, there’s the whole work at home thing. So, um, I’m home a lot. Like all the time. And I get all sorts of door-marketers. Daily. Thanks, but I’m not paying you weekly to deliver advertisements to my door. I’m not interested in hearing about your really cool religion (tho, I’m sure it is really cool), and dude, if I were thinking of selling my house that I live in because some guy thinks he wants to own cheap rental property, (!!!!), I would have called a real estate agent, not waited for one to come knocking on my door.

Can I have a door privacy? You know, some kind of block on my front stairs that’ll keep you from getting to the door unless you’re actually here because I invited you? *sigh*

I’m not sure what it is about me, I must have that kind of friendly face that makes you want to open up, cuz I’ve had to deal with some serious TMI(too.much.information!) lately. (like the real estate agent… really. don’t need one. thanks.) The worst has been the guy at Mr. Sub. Despite my repeated and failed attempts to eat healthier, I’ve been finding myself there a fair bit lately. (it’s not *quite* as bad for me as Dairy Queen’s burger, fries and sundae deal ) But the sandwich dude who’s there every.freaking.day is really not one for keeping things to himself. I didn’t need to know that he doesn’t drink beer or that he hates fish. Or that he used to cook for John Travolta. (uh-huh). But when he stopped me from leaving, sandwich in hand, and a grumbly tumbly, to tell me about his lack of girlfriend, wife, ex-wife, good job, finances and real estate, and because of that he’s planning to go back to school to be  a truck driver, because he can get away from his newly wedded ex who he’s still completely and totally in love with… uh, dude, we’ve crossed the line. Seriously. All you needed to know about me was that I don’t like spices or mayo on my tuna sub. All I need to know about you is that I owe you $7.13. And maybe a nice comment about the weather. We are Canadian after all. But any more than that? TMI. (also, please don’t flirt with me when I’m going into another restaurant with my boyfriend. um,  we’re not holding hands cuz we’re brother and sister…)

So, while we’re sharing… (or, uh, the sandwich dude is sharing ), have you had any random TMI episodes lately? Anything you want to share?

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