My fear of calling strangers on the phone got a lot worse after that, to the point where I won't even order pizza over the phone now. I use the internet or make Pedro do it.
I feel like knowing you can order pizza over the internet will make my life both better and worse. I am not a big fan of calling strangers... but I am getting better at this as part of my job (/position? is it a job if you don't get paid?) at the radio station.
Of course, in that situation, I know that the people I am calling are in their mid-twenties to thirties and want me to think they're cool and hip for knowing about bands. At this point all but one of the people I have to call have mentioned "back when I was MD at (obscure college station name)." Also they always have to mention if they have met the band whose CD we are talking about, or if they saw them live because of course they all live in New York City or Boston and want me to be jealous.
What I don't know if I will ever be OK with, though, is calling them up just to tell them that no one is playing the Shitty Shitty CDs they sent us. Sorry!
I don't know. I can't imagine myself ever becoming more comfortable being a dick to strangers, even ones who are being dicks. I feel like I mostly get my attitude towards these things from my dad, and he is still pretty tolerant of dickery/idiocy, I think. When he does start being mad, though, whoo boy. My parents are really big on this concept of Not Letting People Walk All Over You, which I'm sure is great for them... but it's hell of embarrassing when they're yelling at some airline guy and everyone is staring at me. I feel like I am pretty good with telemarketers, though. I almost got tricked into letting them sign me up for life insurance that "is just a trial month, you can cancel at any time" through my bank, though. This was especially bitter because my dad worked for a big bank at the time, and this was their big rival. (not a dick "hah! I'm banking with your rival!" move. his bank doesn't have any branches in the midwest.)