the art of communication

It's spring here, nearly time to get my legs out again, so I ventured out in a skirt this week. Still in my suede boots though (got my moneys worth out of those!). So I'm wearing my kinda shiny skirt (too fat for a really shiny skirt). I leave work and HAVE to quickly phone my mate in response to a message she left. I'm in the car by now and can't find my handsfree kit. No problemo, no law of safe driving here in California so I dial away. I am somewhat safety conscious though, so while she's in full flow of a tale, I put the phone on speaker and sit it on my lap so I can have both hands on the wheel. She gets really into her story, we're laughing away, I turn left onto the freeway - and the phone shoots off my shiny skirt and lands on the floor in the back of the car. By now I'm doing 70 and there's no way I can reach it. However, the speaker is on the back of the phone so I can hear her clear as a bell. So I just let her go on. Eventually, after about 10 minutes (no exageration) she realises she cant hear me, so the typical 'helloooho?' 'are you still there?' I can't hear you! will I hang up? sequence begins to come from the speaker. Unfortunately the microphone is on the front of the phone and face down on the floor of the car. So I'm shouting, top of my voice at the phone and laughing like an idiot, with no audience. Eventually she hangs up. 15 minutes later, when I get to my first red light I get to retrieve the phone. I look up and the entire family in the SUV next to me are staring like I'm some kinda unexploded bomb. Guess I did have an audience for my shrieking and laughing and grabing at the at the (empty) backseat of the car then! oops.