ohshea said:
The phone ringing over and over

This
I'm not a big phone fan to begin with. I know I'm old fashioned, and etiquette isn't moving in this direction now that everyone has a reliable cell phone, but I have a hard time seeing it as rude to choose not to answer my phone if I don't feel like talking to that person right now. Or, to put it this way, I take issue with the expectation that I be reachable at anytime by anyone who has my number. I'll always listen to the voicemail and always get back to the person the same day, if it's not urgent.
What really kills my buzz when I'm not sober is when an ignored phone call is immediately followed by another one (or more!) from the same person, followed by a text or voice mail giving me shit and/or insisting I call back right away. I'm not angry at the person, so much as cursing my luck -- I really try hard to plan any drug use for times when I'm not anticipating any urgent serious business requiring my full faculties coming up.
Both times this past year when I've been on vacation, I've received phone calls from my coworkers, meeting in my absence to discuss scheduling issues, and wanting my input right then and there. Both times the call came when I was fucked up, and I resented it immensely. My coworkers apologized profusely for bugging me in the middle of my vacation -- I tried hard to hide both my intoxication and my annoyance, and must have not done the best possible job of it. I wasn't mad at them, but very annoyed on principle, especially the second time it happened. Don't I have the right to be unavailable when I'm on vacation?
My wife and a good friend of mine have both told me we're moving towards a world where professionals essentially never leave work, and are going to be expected to be on-point and ready to talk business 24/7, 365. I'm certainly not looking forward to this brave new world.
What's really at the bottom of all this is one of the oldest and strongest utilitarian arguments against recreational drug use, less true than it was in the caveman days, but still salient: We live in a world where survival favors those who are always ready at a moment's notice to deal responsibly with unexpected situations. To deliberately put one's mind in a state where that may not be possible is utterly foolish from an evolutionary perspective, and irresponsible from a civic or socio-ethical perspective. I don't ultimately agree with this viewpoint, but I will acknowledge that it is a logically sound and worthy challenge, that any mature drug user who hasn't completely given up on life and society must answer in kind.