I am a big fan of Christmas. I love Christmas music, I love Christmas lights, I love snow, I love drinking hot chocolate and I love decorating! Most of all, I love spending Christmas with my family.
It is with these thoughts each and every year, that I already know what I want for Christmas. As I'm sure we all know, coordinating Christmas can be difficult when dealing with siblings and parents, all of whom have very busy schedules and lives. Needless to say, scheduling a family Christmas can get tricky and I'm sure we aren't the only family that deals with this on an annual basis. My siblings are married, so that throws even more extended family scheduling difficulties into the mix. Last Christmas, my entire family was not together, and even though most of us were there, it still didn't feel like it should have. I felt like the same thing was going to happen this Christmas and I was feeling slightly sad because I wanted to share this special time of year with my entire family. So I made an early Christmas wish: "all I want for Christmas is to be with my entire family."
My parents and I had discussed the Christmas plans, and it sounded like it would be fragmented again. My sister and I also were trying to sort it out, and again, I didn't have much hope that we would all be together on Christmas. I would enjoy myself anyway, regardless of whether my entire family was present or not, I was just really hoping that we could all be together this year. I landed this morning from a flight and received a message from my sister: everyone is going to make it this year! My Christmas wish came true!! I will be celebrating Christmas with my entire family and I couldn't ask for anything more than that.
That and world peace...
Happy holidays :-)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Technology and I
This past Saturday my blackberry died. No radio signal, and if I was getting one, it was wildly fluctuating between full service bars and no service at all. My track pad stopped working so I was unable to navigate throughout the applications on my phone. No calendar. No alarm clock. No contacts. No text messaging. No blackberry messaging. No facebook. No email. My cell phone is my only phone so needless to say, my life was greatly impacted by this event. Sure, I could access my email and facebook by using my laptop - but really?! How inconvenient! I don't lead the type of life that is conducive to sitting in front of a computer (side note: it's quite ironic that I'm sitting here right now in front of a computer writing this blog - but I digress).
Panic set in almost immediately. How was I to communicate? How was I going to keep in touch with the outside world? What if I missed something? How are people going to get in touch with me? How will I remember my appointments? What if people are text messaging me? The list of panic related thoughts went on and on, spiralling out of control, until I finally collected myself, and decided to spring into action to rectify my isolated situation.
This action involved borrowing a phone to call my cell phone provider, driving to the kiosk in the mall where my provider sells phones, and driving to a cell phone repair shop in order to pay to get it fixed myself. The answer was the same at each place: we can't help you at this moment. Seven determined hours later, I found my very frustrated self back at home, alone, and still with a very broken blackberry. The repair person, after three solid hours of trying, was unable to fix it and sent me on my way saying "I've never seen a problem like this before, good luck!" My cell phone provider's way of dealing with this problem was to mail a loaner phone to me along with an empty envelope from their warranty office, with which I could put my broken phone into and mail it back to them. Great. Snail mail was the solution to fix my very pressing problem.
Seeing as this was my only option, I told myself it was going to be okay. Maybe I can get through a couple of days without a phone. Maybe it will be nice to be unattached technologically for one or two days. I did stress to my provider that this was my only phone, and they did assure me I would have my loaner phone in three to five days. Maybe I will be alright. I can get through this! I lived many years ago without a cell phone, albeit I was younger, but I CAN AND WILL do it again! Bring it on!!
Day one without a cell phone was okay. Not great though, and I definitely experienced many moments of panic, but I was doing okay. I was still adjusting to the idea of being without a phone but my spirits were high and I was being positive.
Day two was a bit more intense. I was starting to feel even more out of the loop. What was going on? What if someone was trying to contact me? The panic was setting in a bit more now, but I was still valiantly fighting it off with a good effort. I was beginning to feel irritable at times and could only attribute it to cell phone withdrawal. I comforted myself with the thought that my loaner phone would soon be arriving in the mail.
Day three: I was literally withdrawing from everyone around me. My only means of communicating was relegated to using the internet via my laptop. Each hour crawled by. Fortunately, I lead a very busy life so I couldn't sit around all day stressing about having no phone, but that meant that I couldn't have access to the internet and my laptop all the time as well. My anxiety was mounting. What if my loaner phone doesn't arrive? What if someone emails me and I'm not around my laptop? How am I supposed to live like this!?! Again, I found comfort in the thought that my loaner phone would arrive, I was sure, by tomorrow!
Day four: Still no loaner phone. I arrived home and was disappointed that it still hadn't come. But I was starting to get used to having no phone and figured I could wait another day or two. I guess you could say that acceptance was starting to set in. UNTIL, I tried to log onto the internet via my laptop and discovered that my internet signal was down. Explosions of panic triggered inside of me. I am going to die, all alone in my apartment, with no access to the outside world at all! Now I can't even email somebody if I want to communicate!?!?! That's it!! I'd had enough! I could somewhat deal with haveing no phone as long as I had access to the internet. But no internet AND no phone?! It was simply too much (or not enough - depending on which way you look at it)! I left my house, drove to the nearest store where my cell phone provider sells phones, and bought myself a new blackberry. Immediately I felt better. Did I feel better about the money spent? Absolutely not. But can I put it into a 'necessity' category? Absolutely.
Day five: I am happily texting again and have emerged back into the outside world.
During this whole ordeal, I felt at times, especially when my internet signal went down, that mother nature was playing a cruel game with me and forcing me to take a step back from communicating and technology. Ideally, it would be nice to take a break from all of the connections we are linked into and spend some quality time with ourselves and away from the field of technology. However, this time needs to be regulated and taken at one's discretion, perhaps while on vacation and when one plans for this type of isolating, mind-building activity. To lose all forms of communicating technologically while busily going about one's life is absolutely unbearable; technology is so much a part of life these days. It makes life difficult to the point where the amount of money one can spend on rectifying the situation becomes trivial. Money is not an option if it means getting the convenience of easy communication back into your life.
The lesson I learned: I cannot live without technology. Well, I guess I can live without it if I had to, but it is not an easy situation to be in and one in which I hope to not find myself again anytime soon.
Day six: still no loaner phone...
Panic set in almost immediately. How was I to communicate? How was I going to keep in touch with the outside world? What if I missed something? How are people going to get in touch with me? How will I remember my appointments? What if people are text messaging me? The list of panic related thoughts went on and on, spiralling out of control, until I finally collected myself, and decided to spring into action to rectify my isolated situation.
This action involved borrowing a phone to call my cell phone provider, driving to the kiosk in the mall where my provider sells phones, and driving to a cell phone repair shop in order to pay to get it fixed myself. The answer was the same at each place: we can't help you at this moment. Seven determined hours later, I found my very frustrated self back at home, alone, and still with a very broken blackberry. The repair person, after three solid hours of trying, was unable to fix it and sent me on my way saying "I've never seen a problem like this before, good luck!" My cell phone provider's way of dealing with this problem was to mail a loaner phone to me along with an empty envelope from their warranty office, with which I could put my broken phone into and mail it back to them. Great. Snail mail was the solution to fix my very pressing problem.
Seeing as this was my only option, I told myself it was going to be okay. Maybe I can get through a couple of days without a phone. Maybe it will be nice to be unattached technologically for one or two days. I did stress to my provider that this was my only phone, and they did assure me I would have my loaner phone in three to five days. Maybe I will be alright. I can get through this! I lived many years ago without a cell phone, albeit I was younger, but I CAN AND WILL do it again! Bring it on!!
Day one without a cell phone was okay. Not great though, and I definitely experienced many moments of panic, but I was doing okay. I was still adjusting to the idea of being without a phone but my spirits were high and I was being positive.
Day two was a bit more intense. I was starting to feel even more out of the loop. What was going on? What if someone was trying to contact me? The panic was setting in a bit more now, but I was still valiantly fighting it off with a good effort. I was beginning to feel irritable at times and could only attribute it to cell phone withdrawal. I comforted myself with the thought that my loaner phone would soon be arriving in the mail.
Day three: I was literally withdrawing from everyone around me. My only means of communicating was relegated to using the internet via my laptop. Each hour crawled by. Fortunately, I lead a very busy life so I couldn't sit around all day stressing about having no phone, but that meant that I couldn't have access to the internet and my laptop all the time as well. My anxiety was mounting. What if my loaner phone doesn't arrive? What if someone emails me and I'm not around my laptop? How am I supposed to live like this!?! Again, I found comfort in the thought that my loaner phone would arrive, I was sure, by tomorrow!
Day four: Still no loaner phone. I arrived home and was disappointed that it still hadn't come. But I was starting to get used to having no phone and figured I could wait another day or two. I guess you could say that acceptance was starting to set in. UNTIL, I tried to log onto the internet via my laptop and discovered that my internet signal was down. Explosions of panic triggered inside of me. I am going to die, all alone in my apartment, with no access to the outside world at all! Now I can't even email somebody if I want to communicate!?!?! That's it!! I'd had enough! I could somewhat deal with haveing no phone as long as I had access to the internet. But no internet AND no phone?! It was simply too much (or not enough - depending on which way you look at it)! I left my house, drove to the nearest store where my cell phone provider sells phones, and bought myself a new blackberry. Immediately I felt better. Did I feel better about the money spent? Absolutely not. But can I put it into a 'necessity' category? Absolutely.
Day five: I am happily texting again and have emerged back into the outside world.
During this whole ordeal, I felt at times, especially when my internet signal went down, that mother nature was playing a cruel game with me and forcing me to take a step back from communicating and technology. Ideally, it would be nice to take a break from all of the connections we are linked into and spend some quality time with ourselves and away from the field of technology. However, this time needs to be regulated and taken at one's discretion, perhaps while on vacation and when one plans for this type of isolating, mind-building activity. To lose all forms of communicating technologically while busily going about one's life is absolutely unbearable; technology is so much a part of life these days. It makes life difficult to the point where the amount of money one can spend on rectifying the situation becomes trivial. Money is not an option if it means getting the convenience of easy communication back into your life.
The lesson I learned: I cannot live without technology. Well, I guess I can live without it if I had to, but it is not an easy situation to be in and one in which I hope to not find myself again anytime soon.
Day six: still no loaner phone...
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