Disconnecting

I remember when my family got our first computer. It was Christmas and I must've been about nine, if memory serves me, and my mom and dad did a bait and switch; a sort of box with in a box sort of trickery. I remember screaming and jumping for joy because my family finally had a computer in the house. That computer served us well. I played Oregon Trail and we had dial up internet via AOL. That really was the life.
Then quite a few years later I remember getting my first cell phone. I had just come back from New York where I celebrated my 16th birthday with my family. When I got home my mom had made my favorite dish, one of the things she does well, eggplant parmesan and there was a bag on the table, and then the strangest thing happened. The bag began to ring. I tore through the tissue paper and there was my phone. It was, what we call these days, a "go phone". I had a pre-paid amount of minutes that I could use and when those ran out the phone became, well, a paper weight. But I was still thrilled to have my very own phone. When I moved back to San Antonio from Florida I used my grandparents computer and I would waste many long nights on AIM talking to my friends that literally lived around the corner, but this was before everyone had texting so it was the easiest way to get in touch with someone at 2 in the morning.


Then it happened. One of the most defining moments of my adult life, at the time anyway. I was 18, I had my first credit card that had a 2,5000$ limit (I'll never understand what they were thinking putting that much money in the hands of someone my age, but it happened all the same) and I was heading to Chicago soon to start my new life. "Well, I have a phone," I thought to myself; "I guess I'm gonna need a computer." At that time, as is such now, Apple was all the rage and by god I wanted one. So I jumped in my grandparent's thunderbird (which we lovingly called the thunderchicken because of it's tan color) and drove to Compusa, or some equivalent of that, and there is where I purchased my very own computer. A 2005 mac book, white, and a fancy bag to lug the monster around in. Little did I know that this started my downward spiral into the world of technology.
Shortly after I had moved to Chicago the laptop, which I dubbed Buddy, slipped off my bed and damaged the ethernet port. So I could only get online if there was wifi around...so I had to run out and buy an airport. That quickly crapped out on me. When I went home to live with my dad for the summer I told him about what had happened to my computer and he brought me to the Apple store for my birthday and bought me a new mac book. I named this one Buddy2, see the pattern yet? Coming back to Chicago I was armed with a new laptop and a new lease on life. Nothing would ruin THIS computer. Then in 2007 not one year after Buddy2 was purchased tragedy struck. My boyfriend and I were watching a movie and the computer was on my desk. Now, I don't know how many of you have been in a dorm room, but there isn't a whole hell of a lot of room in those things. So we placed our drinks also on the desk, he wanted to show me something online and reached over me to get to the keyboard. It all happened in slow motion and, honestly, I feel like my brain has blocked out that memory. His drink was in front of the computer and his hand went straight through it knocking it onto the laptop. We quickly shut it off and put it on it's side, but to no avail. We brought it to the Apple store and I felt like I had a child in the hospital, waiting for the news. The apple care genius came to us and said "Your computer doesn't recognize that it's a computer anymore. We can fix it, but you might as well just get a new computer because it's gonna be at least that much to fix this one. But I can get your hard drive out." My boyfriend offered to buy me a new computer and I told him that he didn't have to get me a new mac, any computer will do. That's how I got Buddy3. An HP laptop, a monster of a thing, with Windows Vista installed on it. At first there were no problems, but Vista will always be the bane of my existence. Needless to say Buddy3 didn't last long and the minute I had the money I ran out and bought a netbook. A cute little laptop that I could throw in my purse, why I would ever do that? I still have no idea what I was thinking. Buddy4, was it's name, if you were wondering. Not long after my fat cat decided to sit on it and broke the pixels at the bottom of the screen, well that sucks. It also crashed a couple times and I lost all of my stuff. This has also happened a few too many times than I like to think about. It also didn't have a disc drive. Now, I'm not sure if you know me or not, but I LOVE watching movies. It's my thing. This became a problem when the tv was being occupied during Sunday all day football and I wanted to watch a movie. So, I got rid of Buddy4 and I purchased an old mac book pro from craigslist. Buddy5. I loved this thing. It ran perfectly. It had a disc drive. It was a mac! But not all things last and Buddy5 has succumbed to the curse of Emily and is slowly dying. The moral of this story is that way back when I probably should've just bought a desktop, because I probably wouldn't have had nearly as many problems, but I didn't and now I'm under the impression that I shouldn't own electronics.

Now, during this tale I haven't spoken of the many phones I have gone through. Then one day, when my mom was in town for a visit we decided to go look at iPhones. How amazing is this thing? It's like a tiny computer in my hands...all. the. time. Constantly connected. Constantly on. Of course I had to have it and mom liked the fact that it had a map and apps for cabs so I would always "be safe". We both got iPhones on that day and we were like crack addicts the first couple weeks. Apps this and apps that. "Oooo Emmy, look what it can do." It was also WAY too easy to get on amazon.com (there's an app for that) and purchase, well, anything. Books. Movies. I'm pretty positive that anything you could ever want or need can be purchased through amazon. So, I forsake Buddy5 and was constantly using my phone, unless I had to write a paper or long email or something. I won't even get started on how many songs that I bought via itunes on my phone. But nothing lasts forever. This past Saturday as I was leaving my house to have a drink with a friend I had my phone in my hand. I NEVER have my phone in my hand, unless I'm using it, but this night I did. And as I turned to go down the stairs my phone took a swan dive off the deck. I flew down the stairs and saw it lying face down on the concrete. A tear fell and I gathered my courage and picked up the phone. Completely smashed. Actually the guy at ATT said it was the worst iPhone break he had ever seen. It doesn't make phone calls. It only connects to the internet if I'm near wifi. It's like a cracked ipod now.

So, dear friends, I am disconnecting. I am "kicking it old school". I, by some miracle, found my old phone and my zune. The two electronic gadgets of mine that have survived, I even dropped the zune in water once and he's still kicking. I was upset about my phone for a few days, but now I'm kind of starting to see this as a blessing in disguise. One thing I do miss is the fact that I could see what time a train was coming, I can't do that anymore. But I think it'll all be ok. I'm getting back to basics. I have my phone. I have my music. I have a computer at home where I can waste hours of facebook if I want, but I won't be constantly connected all the time now. It feels almost liberating. That's not to say I'm not saving up for a new iPhone. Come June, friends, I shall be back on the iPhone wagon. But for now...I will be content to just disconnect.