Remembering Cali Lady

So I got another misdial today. No surprise if you know my number. Today was no different, except for when the guy misdialed and hung up, he actually called me back a few minutes later to say "Yo, I realized I misdialed, and wanted you to know it wasn't a prank call or anything." Wasn't really any skin off my back, but I do appreciate him being considerate.

What this did make me think of, is "Cali Lady". One day in college, freshman year to be more specific, I got a call from a woman. Sounded like an elderly white lady. She was looking for her daughter who lived in California (the lady herself actually lived in my area, where my phone was from at the time). I told her "No, I'm sorry, but I'm a young black male. Might possibly like to meet your daughter, but I'm not her." She laughed and hung up. Some time later, she called again, for the same thing. I politely told her again "No, I'm not your daughter." "Oh, I'm so sorry, sir. I just get the numbers mixed up because (we have the same numbers, you just flip the area code with the 2nd set of 3 numbers)". "It's not a problem, m'am." And honestly, it wasn't. Nobody really called me then, and it's not like I paid for minutes or anything. No harm, no foul.

Now here's the kicker to this. This lady consistently misdialed my number for five years. I wish I was making this up, I wish I was exaggerating (ok, maybe it was four), but she misdialed me well when I was out of college. It was to the point that she'd call and we'd have short convos. I mean, it was to the point that she told me her daughter lived in Cali (where specifically, I dunno), at one point her daughter's city was in or near forest fires, and a few other things. I had the lady's number memorized at one point and kind of just "expected it to happen."

She hasn't called in a few years. Maybe somebody showed her how to use speedial. Or possibly, her daughter changed her number (I contemplated calling her daughter MANY times, but I don't think I did. I vaguely remember calling her once to tell her her mother (or grandmother?) was ok, but if I did it was one random occurrence). Needless to say, I kinda miss that.

And actually getting a call back as a friendly note today just reminded me of that.

So where ever you two are, Cali Lady and Cali Girl, I hope you two are doing well.