Things that go "BEEP" in the night....

It was my second night back on the rock and I had just finished watching a movie with my dad (a terrible movie, I might add - my mom would not have approved of our cinematic choice). He had to work the next morning, so he said he was going to go check his email and go to bed. I said good night and continued to watch the remainder of the "Jay Leno Show" on TV.

At around 11:30pm or so, I heard this "BEEP" from the other room. Strange, I thought to myself, and got up to investigate. My first instinct was to check our microwave oven. Long story short about the microwave: it's one half of a oven/microwave combo that was installed when my parents built the house. Needless to say, over the years, the microwave had become temperamental and would start wigging out the electricity was left connected to it for too long. This is why we have to flip the breaker switch for the oven/microwave when we want to use it. :) I digress...

I got up to investigate the "BEEP". Thinking it was the microwave, I wandered into the kitchen. I flipped on the kitchen light and peered at the microwave. I saw nothing but blackness where the numbers of the clock should appear - the microwave was off. Odd, I thought, but went back to my seat on the couch and continued to watch TV. About a 1/2 hour later, I heard the beep again; this time I chose to ignore it, thinking it would just go away on its own (yeah, right - it didn't). I wandered to the bathroom about 1:30am and began to get ready for bed. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard the beep again. Thinking it was just a smoke detector - or something of that nature - with a low battery, I went off to bed and told myself I'd figure it out in the morning.

The next morning, I woke up around 7:30am and almost immediately heard the beep again. I decided that showering first would hone my detective skills, so I set off to do that before beginning my investigation. After my shower, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't possibly do any detective work on an empty stomach, so I set off to make some breakfast first. After all that was done, I was sitting at the dining table, sipping my tea, when I heard the BEEP again. I got up and went to the "electronics corner" and picked up my mom's cell phone. Thinking to myself that there was no way in hell that her cell phone could be making that noise, I pressed a button to view the screen. When I pressed the button, I noticed it made the same BEEP I had been hearing all night - of course, I was more shocked that the phone was actually on! The screen staring back at me said "New Voicemail Message". I was shocked - first by the phone being ON, then by the voicemail message. With slight hesitation, I pressed the "dial voicemail" button and turned on the speakerphone. Instead of going to voicemail, it started ringing. After the 4th ring, someone's voicemail picked up...MY voicemail! I hung up, thinking I had just pressed the wrong button and not actually dialed my mom's voicemail (thinking I hit "redial" instead). Nope...not the case. I had actually pressed the correct button to dial my mom's voicemail, but it had mysteriously connected to my cell phone instead.

At that point, I glanced over at my mom's photograph and said, "What are you trying to say? Are you trying to tell me something?" If her photo could have smiled right then and there, I think she would have. I think she would have winked, too. Needless to say, I haven't heard the BEEP since that night, no more mysterious "voicemail messages". I think she was just trying to say hello.

Mom, next time, you can try emailing too. *wink* :)

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