A Blessing and A Curse

Cell Phones.

Good for:
1. arranging meetings
2. setting up dr. appointments
3. cancelling dr. appointments
4. locating someone you're trying to meet at the mall
5. finding Mom after losing her at Walmart
6. asking your husband to put dinner in the oven because your grocery store/library/bank/post office trip is lasting longer than expected.
Of course, if you've got a fancy-schmancy "smartphone", they're good for so many more things than listed above.

Not good for:
1. any conversation lasting more than 2.1 minutes
and isn't that what phones are supposed to be for?

So we're the fam that only has cell phones. Maybe someday when the boys are older and there are teams and teachers and friends calling we'll get a landline, but for now, I'm too cheap to pay another $25/month for something we don't really need. 25 bucks is 25 RiteAid single scoop ice cream cones or admittance for three adults and four kids to the local swimming pool or three visits to the lake or a lot of groceries, or...

...back to the phones. They're okay if you can take the time to sit down somewhere in the house where there's no interference and have a normal conversation. But you can't do that now, at least I can't seem to. You've got to do the dishes, or you're bathing the kids, or you are at the store with all of the kids in tow and you thought it was going to be a quick conversation but it's not. So even though you want to be profound and wise and available what really happens is this:
You're talking to a friend and you both get excited and end up talking over each other on accident. And you're both saying, "oh - um - go ahead, no- you were saying...Oh! Your mom is dying? - no, no, oh, the baby's crying. Oh yeah, go get her." and you're hoping your friend doesn't think you're an idiot.

and then she says something and the phone cuts out and you aren't sure whether or not to say "What?" rather loudly because of the deafening background noise or just pretend you understand exactly how she's feeling...

and then you lose someone, but you're not sure if they can still hear you, so you end up talking to yourself. "okay, um, I can't hear you anymore. Can you hear me? If you can hear me, I'll talk to you later. 'K, bye."

It's a new world. One with cell phones. And even though I don't always love them, they're very convenient. I'm working on longer pauses to avoid talking over my much-loved friends. And I just have to confess right now, I don't know anything about the whole text messaging world. I think I've sent two. Kind of on accident.