"Welcome to the '90s!"

...that is what one of my friends exclaimed last year when I gave her my new (and first) cell phone number. Now, like most, I cannot believe I lived 44 years without a cell phone. I carry it with me at all times, check it frequently and recently had to upgrade my texting package. I've lost it twice and both times I thought the world was coming to an end. Though I like to think I am not as bad as many, I have broken all of the cell phone habits I find most annoying -- talking in public, talking while driving, and leaving my ring tone on during meetings. Did I mention that my ring tone is a song by Pink called Bad Influence? It's not a tune you want screaming out of your briefcase at a staff meeting, I discovered recently. And that texting package? At the time I was averaging about 35 texts per month, and it was cheaper to upgrade to 250 per month. By the following month I was averaging 200 texts. WTF? So as resistant as I am to new technologies, I embrace them enthusiastically once I get around to it.


Now I've taken another major technological leap -- because apparently I missed the 80s too. I just upgraded my cable package so that I can DVR. Is that a verb? I think it is. Of course, I have absolutely no idea how to DVR. There have always been about 45 more buttons on my remote than I needed. On/Off/volume/channels/mute -- what else could one possibly do with a TV? Now I need all those buttons, but I will have to take a special ed course at the junior high in order to learn how to do it. In fact, I even have a second remote that came with my TV, and I have never taken it off the end table. I am afraid I will learn that I need two remotes!

One of the things I worry about with my new ability to DVR is that I will like it. A lot. And that I will sit in front of the TV like a giant vegetable and do nothing all winter but watch all the shows that I claim I don't have time for or that come on too late. Because now I can watch them on a weekend afternoon when the only thing that used to be on was Roadhouse with Patrick Swayzee or football and I would normally be doing something more productive.

Like talking on my cell phone. Or texting.