This one has been bugging me for a while, so sit down while I rant. I have a cell phone, but I'm not a hypocrite, and I thought I'd get that out of the way before I continue.

What the heck are people's problems? Can't they turn off their cell phones for just a short period of time? Do they really need to be connected 24/7? Ok... in some instances I can understand it - a neurosurgeon, or emergency on-call medical specialist... a lawyer who's waiting on a verdict from a jury about a murder trial... even the head of an IT department for an internet company (in case the site irrevocably crashes).

But not your regular average guy or gal. Like me. Like you (a great majority of my readers).

When I go out, my cell is always with me. But it's not always on - or at least, it's not always set so that people can hear it. In the last two months, here's where I've seen cell phones being used, or heard them...

...and before I start... do you *really* need to talk that loudly on the phone? The microphones are perfectly adequate at picking up what you're saying... I'm sure you don't need the general public knowing the full details of the episiotomy that you had to have to deliver your third child (especially the insult you felt at having to have one since you didn't need one for the first two - overheard at a restaurant while ordering lunch to go)

No less than 5 cell phones went off at each of my children's school holiday programs. What is more important than your child's performance? Keeping in mind, while you're yakking there, you're interrupting someone else's enjoyment of their child's performance.

I went to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. While there was an earthquake that disturbed everyone in the theatre, that wasn't as nearly as disruptive as the two cell phones that went off and had people booing and yelling. You're going to a movie... not a discussion group.

Someone almost plowed into me the other day when I was coming down and around a curve onto a busy street from a two lane freeway exit.... the other individual was in the other lane and drifted into mine, and got really annoyed when I blasted my horn at them. They rolled down their window, I rolled down mine, and the comment I got? "Hey, I'm trying to talk here?" My response? "Hey jerk... *I'm* trying to DRIVE here." My voicemail on my phone has a very unique message: "Hi, you've reached (me) and either my phone is off, or I'm driving down the freeway and don't want to risk anyone's lives. Leave me a message and I'll call you back as soon as I get it." I don't get a lot of voicemail, but many of the ones that I do end with "Drive safe!".

If you're in a meeting, and your cell phone rings, what do you do? I generally check who's calling and then either let it go to voicemail or excuse myself politely and quietly to answer it. I don't answer the phone during the meeting. Especially if I'm running the meeting. My current boss is very good about checking and then hitting ignore or mute, unless it's critical. My ex-boss answered the phone ALL THE TIME. He never said excuse me, never left the room (except when he was going through his divorce), and would start talking while we're all there (usually in the daily staff meeting) to hear his side of the conversation. Even in the rare one-on-one's that I would have with him, he would answer the phone. He knew exactly how to make his staff feel less than valuable than his auto-detailer (that was one of the calls he took). I learned to walk away while he was on the phone. No one is going to make me feel that worthless unless I let them.

The ex-boss isn't too happy with me... He was trying to talk to me in a conversation that I sort of initiated and DH called. I looked, I answered, and I looked at the ex-boss and finished with a "I can try and supply it in three weeks but that's the earliest I can... I'm going to Sundance too, remember?" and walked away. He wasn't too happy about me doing that to him according to the people that were in the room with him. Said something about that head-swelling again. *shakes her head at that one* It's too bad he didn't catch the clue.

No, you really don't need to use your two-way Nextel capability at Costco or large supermarkets... especially if you're in the bread aisle and the other person is in the vegetable aisle. It's not that hard to walk over and ask them what kind of bread they want or ask if the asparagus is reasonably priced.

When you're at a group dinner, you should ignore the cell phone too, right? Back to the ex-boss.... while we were at Sundance and having a full dinner hosted by our boss (there were about 20 people in attendance) his phone went off about 6 times. I know this because he was sitting right across from me. A couple of times it was my former team members - you'd think that he would tell them not to call because he was at dinner with our boss. Noooooooo. He kept answering the phone. I made a quiet comment the 3rd time that I'd love to get that phone and toss it in the nearest snowbank, and everyone who heard it nodded in agreement. Someone else (a spouse) commented that that was the rudest table manners she had seen since her kids were toddlers (and they were in their early 20s now). My phone was on vibrate and in my purse. I wouldn't have heard it if I tried, and I only had it with me because DH and I were both away from the kids.

Do you *really* need to answer your phone when you're getting a haircut? Or at the gym? Or while you're boarding an airplane and they tell you to turn your cellphone off, and you give them a nasty look and tell the person you're chatting with (incidentally, chatting about nothing really important) that you've been told to turn the phone off, and you don't see what the big deal is. I don't care how important you are... cell phones should be off or on vibrate in church.

Which brings me to loud ringtones.... or the ones that are entire movements of classical pieces - or are both at the same time. While I appreciate that you probably tune out all that is around you, you should know your ringtone well enough that you hear it when it's soft. When my ringtone is on, it's on the soft setting. I can hear it if I forget that I have it on during a meeting... and it doesn't really disturb anyone else. Oh yes, ringtones. It's like no one knows how to turn the darn things down, or they download the really annoying ones that no one else ever would (although, that does make it easy to figure out that it's your phone ringing)... or change them to something less annoying than the standard tone. I suspect that they've become the VCR clock for this century - the vast majority of people don't know how to turn them down or change them. Except they don't just remind you because of the soft green blinking 00:00:00... they remind everyone else when they go off at the most inappropriate times.

I guess a lot of this must come from people who have a need for self-importance or some sort of validation of their existence. I don't need a cell-phone to tell me I'm important. I frankly don't care who I'm important to (except for my kids... I like knowing I'm important to them). With the way some cell-phone users act, it's like they're more important than you or their conversation is more important than the conversation at hand... *hears her phone go off*

...oh, gotta take this call.