the quickest blog i've cut thus far...

I inadvertently dropped my cell phone into a cup of beer during a party over the holidays. I remember watching the scene play out in slow motion as my cell phone tumbled out of my hand and into one of what seemed like an endless array of half empty cups of alcohol, which were surrounding the countertop over which I was hovering as I stuffed leftover pieces of carved meat into my ravenous mouth.

After that episode, my phone was beer logged and didn’t work for a couple of days and that, quite frankly, blew. But then my phone miraculously reincarnated itself. And now it is only on humid and rainy days that my phone acts up--- kind of like those people with knees that are negatively affected by the rain. On those days (this day being one of them), the phone is workable but the screen becomes digitized so that it isn’t obvious who is calling me when it rings. I thought of getting a new phone, but then I realized that I kind of like this new element of surprise.

At a time in which technology allows us an ever greater amount of control over whom and what we let into our own personal worlds, most people refuse to pick up their cells if they ring but the number isn’t recognizable. But whatever happened to social spontaneity? Remember when we used to have real home phones that didn’t display numbers and we picked up the phone even though we didn’t know who it was that was calling us? Cell phones make things a lot more convenient, but they also allow us to hide within our own little protective bubbles, for better or for worse. Perhaps there is value in being caught off guard now and again, even if it means that our lives become a little less fluid and that we are forced to deal with people and situations from which we’d rather shy away; sometimes we have to face our own demons.