Patience is a virtue, and I'm quickly running out of patience...

I've never been a patient person. I've always preferred instant gratification over delayed gratification. I'd much rather buy something I want today instead of waiting weeks or months, even if it means maybe putting myself in a tighter financial situation. I'd much rather buy you a gift and give it to you today than wait for the holiday or event the gift is intended for. Likewise, if I tell someone that I don't want them to do something but they do it regardless, I'm quick to anger as a result of my lack of patience. I don't want to wait however long it takes for someone to understand what I'm telling them. I expect them to understand it as I tell it to them and for their subsequent behaviors to be adjusted accordingly.

Since my first book hit the shelves in 2020 though I've had to exercise a new extent of patience. I may have to make multiple requests to be removed from a company's contact list before it seems to be understood by the vendors in question. There have been those though that it took beyond a normal, reasonable number of requests and my patience was insufficient in those cases. I have been downright rude and hateful to those who seem content to ignore my wishes and push my level of tolerance and patience.

The most recent of these people who seem content and willing to incur my wrath is Abby. I don't know who Abby works for or what her last name is. The only things I know of Abby are as follows:

• She calls from telephone number 315-543-3371
• My phone tells me that number tracks back to Harrisville, NY
• A reverse number lookup tells me that number belongs to Justin Ray Hurlbert
• A Google search of that number reveals nothing.
• A Google search on the name Justin Ray Hulbert reveals nothing that connects to an Abby or any business in the publishing world.
• Abby called me 6 times on Friday, June 21, 2024 between 3:17 and 3:22 PM CST.
• The first two calls were sent to voicemail but Abby left no message
• The third call went to voicemail and Addy left a message but still decided to immediately call me again.
• I couldn't make out much of what she was saying in her message. It seemed like she mentioned her company's name at least twice but I could never make out exactly what she was saying. Even Siri's transcription was little more than a jumbled mess that was largely incoherent and useless. It sounded to me like she was trying to read from a script that she was unfamiliar with and was unsure how to pronounce the name of my book.
• A fourth call went unanswered, sent to voicemail, and resulted in no message from Abby.
• I answered the fifth call and indicated that I was not interested in talking and asked that she stop calling.
• I answered the sixth call and told Abby to F off before hanging up on her.
• Abby called me 2 more times on Monday, June, 24, 2024 between 11:52 and 11:53 AM CST
• I answered the first call and explained that I was not interested in anything she was selling and told her to stop calling me.
• I answered the second call and reiterated my stance, albeit far less polite than the first time.

Abby has pushed my patience for her methods, herself, and those like her to its limit. I've openly admitted that the steady barrage of emails and phone calls from these groups that continually fail to impress me with any sense that they can deliver what they're selling has made me somewhat jaded but Abby's unparalleled level of unappreciated persistence has taken things to an all-time high.

The next time her number appears on my phone, as I'm sure it will given her reluctance to accept the inevitable, she will no longer be greeted by my voicemail intro or a rough rebuff from me directly. Instead, my patience has exceeded what it can restrain in this case and she will only be inundated by an unending string of profanities until she chooses to end the call. The hope being that she will not want to endure another infinite surge of vulgarities hurled her way and she will think better of pushing that call button again.