I'm too busy for you

I was recently privy to a phone conversation between a mother and daughter, at least one side of it, that went something like;

Person answering, "HELLO!?"

Now I'm guessing the other half but I'm thinking it went something like, "Hi, how are you?" 

Person answering, "I'm really BUSY"

Other person, "Oh, well I just have a question for you"

Person answering, "Well ask it quickly because I'm too busy to be on the phone"

um, ouch. 

So why do I relay this conversation to you?  Because my gut reacted to how the person on the receiving end of the "I'm too busy for you" tone and attitude.  That pit in your stomach.  Because truth be told, I was standing right there, and that person, albeit busy, was not doing anything that couldn't have been set down for 2 minutes.  

How often is that the attitude we give, whether we really are busy or not.  Why do we make simple tasks equivalent to putting out forest fires?  And if we are truly so busy we cannot stop and have pleasant, decent conversation with another human being, what have we allowed to fill our lives?