Life Before Cell Phones

Hard to believe, but there was indeed life before cell phones. And it ran smoothly.

Wednesday afternoon I left the office to head to my next place of work. Halfway there, I reached into my bag searching for my phone so I could see what time it was. To my astonishment, all of my rummaging left me empty-handed. At first I was incredulous. How could I have left my phone behind? I NEVER do that. Knock on wood, but I have never lost a phone. But then as soon as I realized I was phone-less I started worrying. What if something happened, what would I do? What was I going to do on my commute since I had forgotten a book? What if I needed to call someone in the evening? What if someone needed to reach me?

Interesting to remember that I've only owned a cell phone for 5 years.

Thursday morning I walked in, and there was my phone to greet me. It had a message or two on it for me to return a call, but surprisingly the world had not ended that night. In afternoon I got home from teaching piano and went to call my landlord. Once again, to my astonishment, the phone was not to be found. I berated myself under my breath for being such a moron and drove back to the piano studio to get my phone. What were the odds? 2 times in 24 hours!! The phone was waiting for me on the piano where I'd left it.

Thursday night I ran out the door to tango class, got in the car, and went to call and give my friend the 20-minute warning. Guess what? No phone. I had left it AGAIN on the dining room table. I was befuddled but I had to chuckle. Clearly the universe was trying to tell me something. "Get unconnected" or "talk is cheap" or "lay down your arms" or something. I got to my friend's, got out of the car and rang the doorbell (because I couldn't call from the street), then I enjoyed the unfettered freedom of enjoying the moment without a clock, without being accessible to the outside world.

When I got home I had a message from tonight's date: "do you want to go out after the show tomorrow?" Being that it was close to midnight, I decided to answer in the morning. After closing my eyes my phone chirped again. And again.. and again. (stupid phone that keeps beeping until someone pays attention to it) Muttering to myself I got up to turn it off, but peeked at the message before I did. From tonight's date: "I haven't heard from you, so I assume tomorrow night is a no go. I'm making other plans." (Even though when we spoke 3 days ago we confirmed our theater plans.)

Yes, ladies and gents, because I didn't respond to a text message within 4 hours, I'm now stuck with tickets to a show and nobody to go with. Excuse me for having a life. Maybe the purpose of my bad cell phone karma this week was just to show me that tonight's date wasn't it. And another one bites the dust.