how do you say hello?

this was one of those conversations you just don't forget too easily. my little fam went out to my in-laws last night for dinner, which is about a half hour drive to their beautiful farm life property. side note: she is one of the most fabulous cooks i will forever attempt at striving to be. my two mothers...just how do they do it?

okay, back to memorable conversation. my hubs and i find all kinds of interesting things to talk about in that familiar ride to the farm. mostly, we use it to catch up with one another from a busy week or simply, just a hectic day. last night, it was all about priority. we discussed the differences in answering a telephone. i was intrigued that most of the time, you hear a telephone answered in the form of a question. we found ourselves impersonating several people we know and doing an in-depth study of telephone etiquette. is there a such thing? i am definitely a sucker for this new discovery, always picking up the phone with a question to give. "hello?" my voice tends to trail upward toward the end of the last "l" and "o". my curiosity prompts my question of who is on the other end. maybe that's where the answering-in-question derives from, curiosity. jacob falls into the matter-of-fact statement, confident of his phone answering skills. "hello. this is jacob." he delivers with a settle air of upbeat optimisim in his tone. this comes from his almost constant good mood, i think.

our small statistics showed us that most men answer in a deep, short, assertive broadcast over the phone. most women seem to deliver in a soft, sweet question-like manner. and the range falls broadly in between. where do you fall across the board? as you discover your technique, get ready to laugh at yourself as you find "hello" coming out of your mouth more times in five minutes than in a whole week of answering the phone. or was it "hello?"