mystery video chat caller solved

Twice in early December my phone rang in a weird way.  I was being summoned to a video call.  Now this is something that Tank would do.  Crank call me with a video chat for kicks.  He has done it.  A weird view of his face appears while he drags the phone up the length of his noggin as if he is on an elevator.

I asked Tank to call me so I could
do a screen shot for the blog.  This
 is his chin/side of his head and the black
 t-shirt he is wearing.  I dare say it looks
 like a really cool album cover with the
 cool lighting and stuff.  Do they
 even have album covers anymore?

The first time I got a non-Tank video call was jarring.  I was leaning over my phone trying to determine what was going on with it.  I could see my own face- up close and personal.  If you have ever been caught off guard by a video chat then you know.  There is something unflattering about the angle, the lighting, the wrinkled up look on your face as you try to figure out why you can see yourself on your phone.  I am no technological genius, nor am I a supermodel.  This was an unwelcome reminder of both.

Once I answered the call the young woman who I could now see looked terrified to see me, and I can't blame her.  That time of night, my cheaters are perched at the end of my nose, my hair sticks out in all direction because I have run my hands thru it too many times, and sleep is calling to me - LOUDLY.  It isn't my best self.  She and I were both confused.  She quickly clicked off her phone.

I called out to my kids - buy I am pretty sure I aimed my remarks to Tank:  very funny!  Tell your friend not to video call me!

As they often do, my children ignored me.  Now I realize that they probably didn't understand what I was talking about.

A few days later, a repeat performance.  My phone calling to me to pick up a video chat.  Me looking oh-so-lovely answering the call.  Same girl, I think.  This time, she flipped her phone up towards the wall so we couldn't see each other anymore.  Again, she hung up on me.

A week later I was driving home from a performance that Curly and I went to with all of her friends and their moms.  (Oh, I have to share more on that later.  I almost forgot what with the door slam and the Letgo buys).  My phone gave me a little alert:  Eddie is on Duo (or something like that - some video chat service).  It invited me to say hi to him on Duo.  I took a pass, seeing as I would be home soon enough.

That's when it clicked with me.  Eddie is dating a girl who graduated from his high school last year.  She is away at college.  She was the one that kept calling me and hanging up on me.  Buy why?  (not why did she hang up- it is pretty clear I was not her intended recipient, why was she calling my phone?)

I came home and asked Ed about it.  We put the pieces together.  Over the course of a few weeks during the school day my phone had been sharing little saved info from Ed's phone.  'Apply to honors program at Wisconsin' and 'group project due for English'.  I was like, 'Huh?'

When Ed was writing a million college essays, he would share them with me.  Somehow our phones got synced.  I asked if the chick had tried to video chat him.  He was like, 'Yeah, she told me some lady keeps answering your phone.'  Mystery solved.

He invited her over to watch 'National Lamboon's Christmas Vacation' before Christmas.  She had never seen it.  We chatted with her before they headed to the teenage hangout in the basement.  We were all shocked at the number of classic movies she had never seen.  I behaved, and I managed to refrain from asking her why she hadn't video chatted me for a while?