On a Sunday night after feeling a little bit sad because David and I were separating again I received at 21:00H a text message that said: " Call me?" It only took me one second to press the key #7 and the magical connection was right there. I heard David's voice and I couldn't help it but smile for a long long time. This phone call only lasted 2 minutes. I-64 has a nice particularity of non-reception-areas pretty much all the way. I'm trying to call again. Intent #2: Dialing. Result#2: Answered. Time talked:131 minutes. Reason: Love.
I left that comment posted up on August 8th 2010, and I suddenly stopped writing. So, I left the action on David's phone connection. Phone calls from David always have a dramatic impact on me: either I get more energy than ever to be a superwoman or I get lazy and silly and end up laying in bed. Either effect works perfectly on me. That little device, a communication device, is one of the biggest helpers I found since I moved away from Northern VA back in August 2009. I pushed (on purpose) the "reset" button on my old phone trying to see how much I would use it, and as of today, I spent 357:11:01 (h:m:s) only to receive calls. I can't believe that I used this phone so much to receive-mostly- voices of people who love me. The other almost 323 hours are the ones I used to call someone. My someones are well defined: my wonderful David, parents, sisters (included Laura), grandpa Lalo, bank claims, insurance company, 2-3 friends from college, and ordering food. What's the thing that makes phone so necessary? Why is it that my soul gets relieved by hearing voices when I don't see faces but when I talk to that person I complaint about not having him/her with me, physically? That's the weirdness of the phone. A sweet indulgence, a necessary sin.
I'm thinking on my trip to Bahamas. Under the excuse of the International roaming and the fact of not touching earth and being surrounded by water, I turned off my phone. I wonder if my parents thought that I was navigating in Magellan's time. I forgot I had a phone, I never thought on the buzz of the text message. I didn't care about my voice mail. I was happy. I was completely happy. How is it possible that my phone makes me happy and also makes me sad, malevolent element of society - you phone that play with my emotions as you wish.
Recently I went out to a bar with my sisters. After few drinks and long conversations I noticed our table filled with high tech phones and, my phone. Always surrounded by technology geeks and socially cool-wanna bes. Probably jealousy on my part, but I figured that modern isn't a word that fits quite well in me, I need to do some "exercise" and be part of the trend, the massive consumer.
But going back to the point of calling me. Call me? I sometimes just want to hear a little comment. A expression of love. Some other times I wish I could hear long life plans and funny stories. Sometimes I just want to feel like a little child and wonder about castles, charming princes and happy ever afters. Sometimes I don't want to use the phone when I get into arguments and discussions, those are the times when I wish Alexander Graham Bell never had the idea of creating it.
I miss talking to someone, to you. I used to have 27 speed dials while living in Peru, now I have only 7, but I realized those are the most important ones I decided to have so far: voice mail, mom, dad, baby sister, big sister, love of my life, uncle who means a lot to me and many more spaces to get filled (maybe) or maybe to stay waiting forever.
If I need to call you I will do it, I need to. If I want to call you, I'll try once and if you don't answer, I'll leave you a voice mail. If I don't want to call you, I'll do it anyway, I rather have a sour moment than no taste at all. I will use you, simple modern human creation, to connect me to all my loved ones. To talk for over 2 hours to the person I love the most in the world, to demonstrate that I can be cool without high tech intimidating phones;my voice can be more intimidating than a piece of well shaped plastic. I'll dial your number tonight. You know it will ring and you'll have me in your ID Caller with my name on it, unless I'm calling to place a carry-out order, then your guess was wrong.
Love you Kathia. And welcome to the blogging world. I agree. Phones are wonderful and fantastic and convenient. But they are also stressful and overly technological sometimes too. I think it's all about balancing. Phone time is great and perfectly fine, but face-to-face time is even more important, when it's possible.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you writing, my dearest. You know my feelings about phones: I don't like them. But since they are the next best thing to being with you and I can hardly survive one - let alone two - weeks without you, I have to give the cellular telephone it's due credit. Hearing your voice on the other end is frequently a rejuvenating, smile-inducing experience. Talking to you has a tendency to melt the hands of my clocks. Don't worry about trying to compete with my high-tech communist phone (satiric irony here; my phone is not a terrorist). Some day you too will have a droid almost as sexy as mine and I predict you will then retract your opinions on the technology geeks and their overly high-tech phones. Or not.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I want a granola bar. ;-)