I am about to go batshit crazy with people who call me on the phone. In my world, especially now that I have a child, phone conversations need to have a defined start, a concise middle part, and a firm ending. And that middle part better by-god involve a little something called a POINT. I have had way too many pointless conversations lately, and these aren't conversations with telemarketers. No, they're with people I need to be nice to. But they make it so hard.

A recent example would include the following conversation with Peg*:

Me: This is Casey.
Peg: Oh, hi...hang on a second... (murmured conversation in the background)
Me: ...
Peg: Okay, yeah. Hi.
Me: What can I do for you?
Peg: Oh. Well, how is everything?
Me: Good. You?
Peg: Oh. Fine. Listen... (more murmuring) ...Hey, did you get that
thing?
Me: What thing?
Peg: ... Yeah. Uh, that thing about that job.
Me: I think I need more information.
Peg: Hey, can I call you back?

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent. (Me.)

First of all, when someone calls me, they are taking up MY time. I would really appreciate it if there was a rough script in their head of what they want to say, and it could possibly include a couple of different options in case the script doesn't go the way they think it does. Spontenaity is good, in that it doesn't derail an entire train of thought, you know? Peg calls me about three times a day. She is also an exceptionally nice person, and it would completely ruin her whole day if I yelled at her and told her my time was too valuable for her dithering. God, how I hate dithering.

So. Anyone have any good coping mechanisms that I can employ? It is important that I listen, because I never really know when Peg is going to actually make her point. And God knows there's nothing I'd less like to do than ask her to repeat something.