I sat near the top of the bleachers in the gym and waited
for the next basketball game to start.
I watched all those around me stare at their phones. Occasionally they pushed the phone with
speedy rapid fire fingers. Far too
cheap and far too introverted to be a candidate for a seat on the cell phone
party bus, I sat alone in the stands, the obvious oddball out.
I do have a cell phone.
In fact, the teenager received a new phone for Christmas and I am the
new owner of her old phone. I’m not sure
I could tell you the number. I use it
occasionally- for calling. It would take
me half an hour to text you a sentence.
I rarely remember to charge it. And
that is why, when I finally decided to call the husband-to join the cell phone party in the
bleachers-I pulled a useless dead phone out of my purse.
The teenager had given me her new cell phone to hold
while she played her basketball game. I held her fully charged phone in my hand
and pushed the on button. It didn’t turn
on. I pushed the other on button. It didn’t turn on. I may have pushed a few more buttons,
randomly, in my efforts to turn the phone on. I did not push those buttons out of
frustration. I pushed out of
curiosity. I wondered out loud to myself,
“How hard could this be?”
It wasn’t very hard for the boy. The boy knew how to operate his new phone
almost immediately, almost instinctively.
Now a teenager himself, the boy did not want a “stupid phone”. The rest of the family owns cheap, pay as
you go phones that, while rarely used, are still a significant upgrade from our
fairly recent status of owning no cell phones at all.
The boy was not impressed with our progress. He was however impressed
when a sympathetic Santa Claus gifted him the most advanced pay as you go phone
on the market. His friends at school seemed impressed with the boy’s new $40.00
touch screen phone with camera, video recorder, MP3 player and Bluetooth,
mobile web and app capabilities. They had never seen such a phone. “It’s like an iPhone, but smaller! It’s so cool. What kind of phone is that?” The
boy, ad libbing, told his friends it was a “Samsung Optimus LG Sierra Touch 4
“. Without question, they nodded their
approval and vowed that someday they would own one too. The boy, a far more social being than the
rest of the family, quickly became attached to his phone. He is most certainly eligible to hitch a ride on the
cell phone party bus.
It’s true, I lack the proper appreciation of this modern
gadget-the cell phone. And it's also true that I have
made little effort to further my relationship with the cell phone. As a result, I do not possess the same
instinctive cell phone skills that the boy does. I did finally, weeks later, learn how to
operate the teenager’s phone. I was not
however, successful that night, sitting in the bleachers at the basketball
game, pounding away on the buttons. I never did get that thing to work.
After the game, the teenager asked for her phone back. I gave her the phone and she turned it
on immediately.
She quickly turned to me, her face a bit paler than usual
and calmly announced, “I’ve just called 911.
Given the seriousness of her announcement, I stared back, a
bit surprised, for longer than I should have.
I wondered why she would do such a thing.
“ Hang up!” I finally yelled, which suddenly seemed
obvious to me. “I think you can go to jail for that!”
“Mom,” she said soberly and very deliberately, “What have
you done to
my phone?”
Check
This Out!
Big
Salad of the Week
1 corn tortilla
salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder
1 small head romaine, chopped
1-2 TBL green or red onions, chopped
1-2 TBL cilantro, chopped
1-2 TBL jack or pepper jack cheese, grated
1/4-1/3 cup frozen corn, defrosted. Heated if you wish.
1/4-1/3 cup black beans
1-2 TBL light Caesar dressing
A few shakes of cumin, garlic powder, salt and
pepper.
A squirt or two of lime juice (optional)
Cut corn tortilla into strips, toss with a bit of oil or
cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt and
pepper, garlic powder, cumin and a tiny bit of chili powder. Bake
on a cookie sheet, 400 degrees, until crispy…10 min?? Perhaps toss half way through.
Toss romaine, onions, cilantro, cheese, corn and black beans.
Stir dressing with remaining spices and lime juice. Pour over lettuce mixture and toss. Top with tortilla strips.
