You know, sometimes I really miss the days before I had a cell phone. The truth is, I never really wanted one. Okay, there was that one time my car broke down in the middle of an intersection during rush hour and I had my two kids in the backseat, but I didn't have one then, and I made do.
My husband had a phone through work and he loved it. He loved it so much in fact that he would often call me while I was trying to make dinner to tell me he had just left work. Then he would call to tell me that he was on his way...it was a long drive (15 minutes) and he got bored. Then he would call me to tell me that he was at the end of our street....
He often told me that I should get a cell phone, but I resisted. Then one day his company upgraded all of their employee cell phones and gave them the option of passing their old phone on to a spouse at their corporate rate. "I don't need a cell phone" I told him, but he wore me down and before much time had passed, I had a phone of my very own. It was actually kind of cool and I happily programmed the calender and various other features.
A few weeks had gone by and I had just come in from grocery shopping. "I tried to call you but your phone wasn't on" he said accusingly as I set the grocery bags down on the counter.
"I know" I replied. Somehow this answer did not satisfy him.
"Why wasn't your phone on?" he tried again.
"Because I didn't need to call anyone" I answered, opening the fridge to put the milk in.
He looked exasperated.
"You are missing the point of having a cell", he said. "I needed to call you and I couldn't because your phone was off".
"Why did you need to call me?"
"To tell you we were out of milk."
I looked from him to the bag of milk in my hand but before I could open my mouth, he had walked away muttering under his breath.
It became a constant source of annoyance for him that my phone was seldom on. I tried to explain to him that no one ever called me so it just sat in my purse until the battery wore down if I left it on, and then it wouldn't work if I really did need to call someone. Every time we had one of these conversations, he ended up walking away and muttering.
I did eventually get better at leaving it on. One day though it stopped working so we went to the store to get a new one. I tried in vain again to say I didn't really need one, but I ended up with it anyway. The store was having a promotion. Buy one phone, get another for free. My daughter happened to be with us at the time and at this news her eyes lit up like it was Christmas and her birthday all at the same time. I thought about it for a few minutes and finally came to the conclusion that she was getting older and starting to take the bus with her friends to the mall and such and it probably would be a good idea for her to have a means of calling home if she needed. Not to mention that I could track her down too. So we got two new phones and went on a "family plan". Then, in the interests of fairness, we got our son a phone for Christmas and he too went on our family plan.
In the very beginning, before the novelty wore off, there were some hefty charges for over usage, and downloading of ring tones, but once they realized that I would really make them pay for any extras, they reigned it in.
And while I liked the idea of being able to phone them and see where they were, it also seemed to work the other way. My son has gone away to school and will often call my cell when I am at work to talk to me. The problem of course is that if I am not actually in my office at the time, I don't hear my phone and miss the call. The other day I came back from making a cup of tea to see the light flashing to tell me that I had two missed calls from him. I called him back.
"Where were you, I called you twice!" (In the space of about 90 seconds).
"I was in the kitchen making tea. Is something wrong?"
"No, I just wanted to say hi."
Because I love my son and want him to call me up just to say hi, I bit my tongue.
This afternoon my daughter texted me to ask if I could pick her up from school since she was staying late for a Yearbook meeting and would miss the bus. I texted back: 'OK. See you 4:45'.
I left work at 4:30 and it takes me about 15 minutes to get to the school.
I had just pulled out into the street when my phone started ringing. Today is the first day of the new no cell phone while driving law so I decided I might as well get the precedent started. After all, she knew I was coming and what time I would be there.
About a minute later, my phone rang again. Then again. Then a text message.
I smiled to myself as I drove and continued to NOT answer my phone, imaging the messages:
'Where r u?'
'R u on ur way?'
'R u coming?'
In my head I thought about the lesson I was teaching her about patience!
At exactly 4:45 I pulled in front of the school and looked for my daughter. I didn't see her. I put the car in park and picked up my phone and read her last text message.
'Ur not picking up. Took later bus home. C u there'
I guess the joke's on me.
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