My Cell Phone Adventure

I use my cell phone for so many things: calendar; personal and professional communication; and entertainment/education with podcasts. I also use it to make money with various rebate programs.  I use it for so many things and in some ways am incredibly attached to it.

I try to balance my attachment with taking cell phone free walks and trips to the park with my son because I don't want him to ever think I'm more attached to it then him.

I find myself feeling really old when I'm speaking with young staff members who never knew a time when people didn't have cell phones.  I still remember having access to my parents cell phone when I was in college was a privilege and born out of the fact I was dealing with various health issues/doctors, etc.  But that's another story.  I remember a time when there were pay phones.  I will let that date me.

I can relate to a story that Alli Worthington tells in her book "Breaking Busy In A World of Crazy".  This was a book I was in the process of reading on MY cellphone.  She tells a story of being a busy mother of five boys and having to take a business trip from California to Tennessee and taking a early morning flight to get the most out of her day.  (I can relate, I used to do this flying from Arizona to Michigan, it was rarely ever a good decision).  She got to the airport and was looking for her phone, she couldn't find it anywhere.  She asked a stranger to please call her phone number so the shuttle driver would hopefully turn around and return with her phone.  Then she realized her bra was ringing...

That story is much better told by Alli, but kept me laughing and definitely relating to the absent-mindedness and dependence with our smartphones.

My friend Monday emailed me that she thought someone hacked into my yahoo account.  I immediately changed the password and fortunately it wasn't an account I use very often.  I didn't think much more of it, except for being a little annoyed.  I had just decided to cancel my cell phone insurance as my phone is 3 years old and probably wasn't worth the monthly payments. Or so I thought...

Wednesday morning everything was going fine and I had on my mind a lot of things to get done.  I was going to work, but also multi-tasking as I am apt to do.  My e-mail kept shutting down and so I didn't worry and just tried to do a soft reset.  I wanted to have my phone available in case my husband or my son's daycare called me.  Nothing.  I could not get past the "apple" coming up on my screen.  Fortunately for me, my early appointment ended up re-scheduling and the manager was happy for me to take un-paid leave to take care of my phone.  The wireless store had no idea what was going on with my phone.  I couldn't call my husband to check with him on our plan options and which phone I was getting.  I definitely was getting the insurance.  Especially after the representatives told me if this had happened 2 days ago I would have gotten a free replacement.  I stayed calm and tried to keep my sense of humor.  There was definitely a part of me that knew how important that darn phone was to my livelihood, communication and generally how I run my life.  I did remember though- there was a time when I didn't have it and I did survive.  My family was fine and I would get a new phone and this was all just a minor annoyance at a very inconvenient time.

Perspective helps.  I look forward to reading more of Breaking Busy In A World of Crazy by Alli Worthington.  But alas, that was lost when my cellphone met its demise.

Hopefully I will get to read the book again, next time it comes as a free book on BookBub or maybe check it out from my library.  I do think the perspective that she offered, and I need to be reminded of, was helpful.