I am the proud new owner
of a fancy smartphone. At least it feels fancy to me, but that may be because
I’ve never had the best of luck with cellphones. Although I’ve never broken a
phone, I’ve had a long series of devices that have proved to be diseased and
decrepit. I’ve only ever lost one, and even in that instance I believe the
phone gods were working against me: while biking home after class one night in
college my phone jumped out of my pocket and skittered across the ground at the
perfect trajectory and speed to shoot it into a storm drain. By the time I
brought Vivian back to help me try to retrieve it, that sucker was probably
already in the Pacific Ocean.
One phone in particular
was especially entertaining, though. It worked well for a while, but then one
day the microphone completely stopped working. Since this was my third phone in
as many months, I wasn’t thrilled about buying yet another, so I decided to hang onto
it for a while. Inspired by my underhanded and thrifty sisters that discovered
they could use the pay phone at Sierra High without putting in money by beeping
their request to the person at home on the other end of the line, I decided to
work out my own system of ‘beep-talk’. One beep meant positive, two meant
negative, and multiple beeps indicated laughter. So my conversations went
something like this:
Me: *silence*
Vivian: Hey Rach, you
there?Me: BEEP
Vivian: Are you going to be able to make it for dinner?
Me: BEEP BEEP
Vivian: Oh, too bad. Hey, remember that time my car battery died because we were using the headlights to look for your lost phone, so we recruited a bunch of frat boys to help us push-start it?
Me: BEEP, BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP
Vivian: “Hey boys, ever push-started a car before?” What a good pickup line!
Me: BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP
Anyway. Yesterday I gave a Gospel Doctrine lesson using only my phone for access to scriptures, online quotes, and my notes on Google Docs, and then I came home and used it to video-chat with Mom, Beth and Sarah. My phone will also work to make calls and texts internationally, and I’m going to post this blog using my phone, just because I can. I know this is old-news technology for most people by now, but I can’t help but think...my, how far I’ve come. It all seems too good to be true, and I’m just really hoping it doesn’t get abducted by a giant fruit bat in Sierra Leone and dropped in the Atlantic Ocean.
That conversation between you and Debbie and totally makes me giggle.
ReplyDeletei have very fond memories of that phone that made you communicate in beeps. i remember feeling like i was in a therapy session, where i could just talk and talk, with only a "beep" or "beep-beep" as assurances that i was heard. i probably shared way more about myself than i should have.
ReplyDeletei also remember the when we decided that you needed a "laughing" code. because during the conversation i'd say something that i thought was funny, and be met with silence. and i'd insecurely ask, "are you laughing?" "beep."
Haha Claire, I had forgotten how the laughing code had come about. That's hilarious! Silence is not a very gratifying response to a funny story, nor is a single beep. Glad we came up with something better.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've thought about that phone over the years, it's those therapeutic conversations with you that I remember the most. I've often thought about how I could start a call-in therapy business using this as a model. I think it could really work.
"Are you laughing?" "Beep"
ReplyDeleteI remember first feeling slightly unnerved when I'd answer the phone and no one was there (hello? hello?), wondering for a split second if I was being prank called and then realizing, no, it's just Rachel and it's about to get funny.