What's the most exciting (unexpected) phone call you've ever received?

In My Humble Opinion
21

My then-girlfriend and I were in a long-distance relationship. She called me one morning, and told me she had just been given a purebred puppy. She was filling out the AKC paperwork, and found that the AKC likes to have a co-owner listed (in case something happens to the owner?). She asked if she could put me down on the form. I said, “Sure”.

It wasn’t until I hung up the phone that I realized I had just been given, and had accepted, a proposal of marriage. We were married a year or so later, and are coming up on our 30th anniversary this summer. (The kids are now out of the house, and we have his-and-her dogs!)

22

An acquaintance called to ask if I’d be interested in flying a LearJet. The conversation went a lot like the scene in Almost Famous when Rolling Stone calls the writer kid.

23

Aw. :slight_smile: Although, no one would fault you for not having picked up on that. :slight_smile:

24

Did the dog fit on your ring finger?

25

Sorry for hijacking, Asimovian, but gotta give an update.
I don’t know if “kept in touch” is accurate… in fact it really isn’t. We did find each other on Facebook and in the summer of ‘13 he came out to Oregon to visit. We arranged to all catch up so Michael, his wife, Susan, her husband, and my wife and I all went to dinner and had a long, wonderful visit.

Michael is a tenure-track professor at a university in Maryland. After getting his MFA he spent several years in China teaching saxophone. It was there that he met his wife, who now has her Ph.D as well and teaches music at the same university he does. They had spent some time apart finishing their respective degrees after he returned stateside, but now live as normal middle-class family.

I never did come out and ask point-blank why his family was always so vague when I happened to run into them and, naturally, ask about Michael. However, I did find Michelle on Facebook some years ago and asked her about it and she said basically the same thing he did in 2011: that they had minimal contact with him when he was in China but assumed he was safe and, lacking any further information, decided to not talk about it. It turns out Susan and her husband visited him in China at least twice, and Michael showed me the pics to prove it. I’m still not sure exactly why they didn’t tell me, but whatever. I didn’t and won’t press it.

I never did fly out, and likely won’t anytime soon. I was late to the whole school thing and, God willing, will be finishing my undergrad this June and then going to grad school. I’ll have neither the time or, more significantly, the money to go visit. But I visit his school’s webpage every now and then to see what he’s up to and we comment here and there on each other’s FB posts. So not staying in touch, really, but not being total strangers either. I guess we just have our own lives now.

Surprisingly, I’m ok with that. He’s happy and safe and successful. I couldn’t ask for more.

Michelle is a teacher as well, at the grade school level. My goal is to return to a community college and teach, giving others the benefits that I had as a struggling adult returing to school in his 30’s.

Susan, who was a veterinarian before becoming a stay-at-home, in many ways raised me. I’m not sure what significance it has but, if my goals are met, the three children she had the most influence on will have grown up to be teachers.

Susan also introduced me to the Straight Dope, back when there were just a couple books in print. Those essays taught me how to write, and I have spent the past several years as college-level writing tutor and freelancer.

Absolutely amazing the influence she and her whole family has had on me.

And as an aside, I found a YouTube video of Michael doing what he does best (Michael was a childhood nickname).

[/Hijack over, carry on]

26

On the good but completely unexpected side:

I got a call from the college prez to tell me when I got tenure. I had gotten other promotions and stuff over the years and never got a call from the president about anything.

It really caught me off guard. I hadn’t bothered to consider when I might expect being told about the decision. The board meeting date was public knowledge but I hadn’t thought to start fretting over it. And I certainly hadn’t expected the president to tell me personally.

So, my side of the conversation was kind of off kilter.

(On the other hand, this call came a day or two after a call telling me that my grandmother had died. It was an odd time for phone calls.)

It didn’t take long after that to discover that having tenure really didn’t change anything and I still had a crappy job that I didn’t want for life. But I was buzzed at the time.

27

Ivylad got this call from his mother last year. I heard his side of the conversation:

“What? Are you serious? Wow, Mum, that’s incredible! Thank you so much!”

Mum called to say that her annuity matured, it was more than she thought it was, and she wanted us to go ahead and build the screened-in patio and get the hot tub.

We threw a kick-ass 4th of July party and a year later, Ivylad spends more time out on the patio than in the house and we are LOVING the hot tub.