How many times have you said, "I wonder what I did in the days before my cell phone?"
Well, I've been finding out this week -- the hard way.
My in-laws dropped me off in the Phoenix airport and within minutes the sixth sense kicked in -- the one when you know your child has to go "potty" or if you think they might be about to vomit... suddenly I felt stark naked as we neared the line for security. I rifled through my purse and my cell phone was gone.
"Tim," I asked my husband, trying to mask utter panic in my voice, "could you please call my cell phone?"
This is my normal method for finding my MIA cell -- except this time, no cheerful ring tone, nothing.
"Call your parents, I must have left the phone somewhere!"
I have a bad history with my cell phone in Arizona. Two years ago, I dropped it in the garage and my father-in-law ran over it. It looked like an Etch A Sketch screen gone crazy. This time I left it in their car, at least, but it won't arrive until Thursday at the earliest.
I spent the better part of Monday e-mailing all my friends and family telling them of my plight. I would have called them on my land line; however, all the numbers are programmed into my cell. Sigh. Plus, who calls someone's land line first? That is SOOOO for telemarketers.
My responsible mom take on this is the main reason I miss my cell phone is that if Dylan's school needs to call me -- if he were to get sick at school or if there was a problem -- they can reach me any time, any place. But for a few days this is not a colossal problem. They have alternative numbers to call. Truth be told, I miss my chit-chatty conversations with my family and my mom and running buddies. When you get right down to it, none of these conversations are really THAT important.
Cotton is NOT the fabric of my life as the commercial would like you to believe. No, I've learned, it's my cell phone -- my way of staying tied in and constantly connected. It's typically mundane conversations (news flash, life isn't always that exciting!), but as I can't help but eavesdrop on others who talk WAY TOO LOUDLY on their cell phones in grocery stores, I'm not alone in delivering daily news of the ordinary.
None of this stuff is important enough to take time to write about in an e-mail, but somehow it moves up the priority list while I find myself stuck in traffic or at a stoplight. Then suddenly it becomes something that has to be shared ... immediately.
Don't worry though, I'll be back chatting it up with a vengeance in a day or so.
Obviously I've had WAY too much time to think about this since I am without my phone.