How much is TOO much??

Alright.. I consider myself to be a nice person. I try to help those as much as I can but how much help is too much help??

My senior year in college I worked in my university's Career Services office. There was one lady who worked there who used to always ask me for computer assistance. Either it was creating a document in MS Office or helping her with email tasks. I didn't mind helping her cause it was usually something easy and never really time consuming.

After graduation, I moved up north. Even with the distance, she still called time to time wanting help. Again, I helped cause it wasn't really a big deal. As time went on, she started emailing me documents that she was doing for work with the hopes that I would fix her problem then email it back to her. Again, it only happened at the most five times and the problems usually consisted of adding a watermark or doing columns, etc so I helped her out..

It have been 2 years since I graduated and the lady is still asking me for help. Today took the cake.

She was doing some type of online test. I'm guessing to get MS Office certified or something. Anyways... The test consisted of questions in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and she called me during every portion. Again, the stuff was easily explainable, so I helped.... up until the 6th phone call. It got to the point, where I was on the phone for minutes as she read each question line by line and then I guided her through the steps. I kept doing it thinking that the current question that she was reading was the last one, but, to my dismay, I would always hear 'Ok, the next one'..

I mean, seriously, why do people sign up to do something that they can't do. That is like a person applying to be a pilot but never stepping foot on a plane. So why would she apply for a position or take a test of that nature knowing that she will need constant help.

I don't mind helping people, but how much is too much..

The trip part is that I am at work.. [I know, I know.. Blogging at work, a BIG No-No. But in my defense... All day, everyday, I sit in front of this computer and design web-based applications. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to actually work my whole time here and not go crazy.. Yes, I get my work done, but I would go insane if I HAD to look at this code for 8 hours straight. So the Internet is my only source of sanity.. But back to the blog....]

Like I was saying.. I am at work. So for approximately 30 minutes [with breaks] I had my cell phone glued to my ear as passer-byers heard 'Click on this', 'Go there' and 'Wait, what?'

Okay that last one came after my aggravation sat in. There was many times when I just stopped listening so after I snapped back I had to give my cue... 'What?'...lol

Maybe it was wrong, but after the 100th question, I gave a lame excuse to get off the phone... Imagine me actually having a meeting a work.. If she would have left the help with the first three phone calls then 'cool', but she kept calling.... and kept calling..

To top it off.. I didn't even get a 'hey' or anything.. Just a 'I need your help'.. The nerve..