Written two weeks ago...

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But still relevant.


I’m writing this on a plane to New York for a family event. This is the fourth plane I’ve been on in three days, and it’s getting old. I left for the airport at 5:30 am with a hastily packed bag – if you’re a fan of “what’s in my bag” like I am, you’ll recognize the list of things I’ve been hauling around airports for the past few days. Paper notebook, pens, laptop, laptop charger, airplane book, snack, bottled water, headache pills, travel cell phone charger…

I only realized after I’d gone through security that I’d forgotten to bring my phone.
The first thing I did was send Mike an email telling him that I’d forgotten my mobile. About 15 minutes after I set the email, I was “paged to a white courtesy phone” so that Mike could tell me that I’d forgotten my phone. As if there was anything either of us could do about it.
(By the way – getting paged is thrilling. I’ve never gotten “paged to the white courtesy phone” in an airport before, and I hope to repeat the experience soon and often. I don’t think I could ever get jaded. It made me feel like a 1940s movie star getting a call in a bar. Amazing how novel it is to walk a few steps, pick up a stationary phone, and hear a live operator read you a message from someone else.)
So the question is – what were we doing? I suppose Mike wanted to let me know that my phone was safe at home (I’ll have no evidence of this until I find a calling card and a phone I can use). And I wanted Mike to know that I hadn’t just dropped off the map – that there was a good reason I wasn’t going to be answering my phone. Sometimes I feel like a character in a 19th century novel who has to let people know when she’s “not at home” to callers so that no one gets offended.
I’m actually, miraculously, not that annoyed. Yes, it will be a little inconvenient, and I will have to buy a phone card so that I can tell my hosts (and boyfriend) that I’ve landed safely and am en route to the Catskills. Finding pay phones can be difficult in these cellular days, so I predict at least half an hour of wandering on backroads looking for someone to give me directions when I inevitably get lost. Addendum: That is indeed what happened. Why is it that every family trip back to the East Coast involves country roads with no lights and lots of curves?

I’ve been “forgetting” my mobile phone more and more frequently these days. It's not quite deliberate, and not quite accidental. Too much of my time is digital these days, that's all. I feel the same way about blogging.

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