Help Me Out Here, Paula!

I've mastered this awkward thing, don't' you think? No? I don't think so either. It's funny sometimes I absolutely love awkwardness, other times it can be so hard. Paula tends to make everything better. It's always easy with Paula around. Here's the thing. Paula isn't always around in my awkward situations. Sometimes, it's just me. And it doesn't always end well with a funny story. Sometimes, it's just... awkward.

I had a friend ask me if I was interested in a call to discuss marketing. I'm always up for learning new techniques, so I agreed to a time. Once we started the call, we were joined by another person and it turned into... awkward. They tried to sell me a product that I was essentially already using, though they never asked what I was doing with this particular area of my life. The third person in trying to get to know me asked essentially if I had a family of my own or if I was single. I tried to say I do have a family, I mean I have parents and a brother and sister and nephews. Afterward, they asked if I had any siblings. I felt really listened to...

The only other question that was not led and wanting only a yes or no answer was what I would do with additional income. I had to think for a bit, as I'm pretty good with my money and take care of things and make them last. I finally decided I would probably pay for editors and try to get more books published. They took this idea of furthering my writing and somehow turned it into a cabin in the woods or on a beach for inspiration.

I can't even tell you how much I wished Paula would show up and we could change the topic of conversation. I can do awkward fairly well. But this call was more than just awkward. It was painful. No one wants to feel like they weren't listened to, whether selling or being sold to. So when they wanted a follow-up call, what did I do? Did I politely tell them I wasn't interested? No, I set another appointment. Then sent an incredibly awkward text later saying never mind.

Sometimes, there is just no way around the awkward.