Getting Smart Again

About a month and a half ago my husband and I decided to downgrade our phones to save money. So we went from Blackberries to regular phones. Now, honestly, I didn’t think this was going to be an issue for me. I may have been the very last person in America to get a cell phone. Being that reachable has never appealed to me. So along those lines, I assumed having mobile internet and e-mail access was something I got used to, but certainly not something I would terribly miss. Well, I was wrong.

There were several twinges of BB mourning but the first big one came at the afore mentioned Black Eyed Peas concert, sponsored, by Blackberry. (It’s like the universe was taunting me.) At the concert you could BBM Will.i.am (for you non BB people that is like a free text thing with other BB owners) and he did a rap while looking at a screen of all the messages he received scrolling up the wall. It was fantastic, and I totally could have been rapped. (Wow, that is an important second p.)

Ok, fine, so I didn’t get to BBM Will.i.am. Is that worth $30/month? No, probably not. Well, then I went on vacation in Podunk, Nowhere. That is when desperation really set in. There was no cell service at the house we stayed in and there was no internet access. There was a land line but you couldn’t make long distance calls, you needed a calling card. Yeah, a calling card.  So you had to drive about 10 miles into town to make a phone call. Now I could sporadically receive and send text messages but I had to stand in just the right spot in the lawn, on the deck or in the kitchen. I used the phrase, “cell hell”, a lot that week.

As for internet access, I am not even making this up, my sister and I drove through town with laptops on our laps watching our connection bars looking for Wi-Fi to poach. We’d pull over if we saw a decent connection, but they were all password protected, even the fire station and churches. Now, I ask you, exactly what is the fire station or the churches doing online that needs ‘security’? So we drove another 10 miles or so to a McDonald’s parking lot to go online. I felt a smidge guilty because I haven’t eaten in a McDonald’s in about 6 years, but not that guilty. I even used their potty. Take that, McDonald’s!

Now, I realize that part of vacationing is enjoying the disconnectedness from the outside world. Yeah, yeah. Vacationing also involves peace and quiet and in a house with seven children, there wasn’t much of that either.  And I didn’t need to stay fully connected. I didn’t mind the breaks. I just needed the occasional fix.

So two days ago, I called Verizon and reactivated my Smartphone. I feel better already. Although, this morning I got out of the shower without rinsing the conditioner from my hair and didn’t realize it until I was fully dressed. I’m thinking if the thing is really going to keep me smart, they’re going to need to start making them waterproof.