I have a friend in Pakistan?

Early this morning, my cell phone rang, waking me up. I looked to see who was calling, as it was an hour that most people I know wouldn't be dialing my number without good reason. I thought it was odd that my cell phone was unable to parse the string of digits into a normal-looking telephone number. The caller ID displayed it as a long, unbroken string of digits, beginning with 92.

I had no clue what the Sam Hill would cause a caller ID display like that, so I hit the Ignore button to send it to voice mail.

Seconds later, the phone rang again. I figured I'd probably be better off answering it and dealing with it, if I was going to be faced with a persistent caller. The voice on the other end of the line belonged to a man who sounded like he had an Indian accent.

In response to my greeting, he said, "This is your friend."

"Who's calling, please?"

"This is your friend."

"I'm sorry, I don't know who you are. Who's calling, please?"

"This is your friend."

I thought to myself that if he really were my friend, he'd know better than to call me at that hour of the morning for anything less than a crisis. But I bit my tongue and said, "Sir, I don't know you. Who's calling?"

"This is Filippe from Pakistan. I am your friend."

"Sir, I really don't know who you are." and I hung up.

Instantly, the phone rang again. I hit Ignore. He called back immediately. I not only hit Ignore, I shut the phone off and left if off for half an hour.

When I turned the telephone back on, I took another look at that caller ID number. I wondered what the telephone code for Pakistan was, and I looked it up. Sure enough, the country code for Pakistan is 92. So Filippe quite literally was from Pakistan, and apparently that's where he was calling from.

I still have no idea who he is or why he was dialing my number, particularly since he never did leave a message when I directed his calls to my voice mail.

But no freaking WONDER I deal with insomnia. When I finally do get to sleep, I get woken up at the freaking crack of dawn by prank calls from Pakistan. ARRRRGH... :headdesk: