living without and trying to function with

My day without modern technology was odd to say the very least. I felt as if half of myself was missing. The first thing I learned was that it is very unnerving to have no idea when its going to stop raining, especially when the rest of ones day depends solely on the weather. I found myself returning to earlier days. I went to the movies with a friend that I called on my " apartment" phone. Which brings me to my second discovery: I have no idea how to use a regular phone, especially one that involves dialing out. Through trial and error, I ultimately discovered that the magic number was nine. It still eludes me as to WHY the phone will not let me call some numbers and not others, and why even though I dialed a 1 or 0 in front of the number the call would NOT go through, as the very annoying operator voice had promised. Normal phones proved to be a problem at work as well as at home. During break at work I could not figure out how to call out either, and I have too much pride to ask. As a result with no cell phone or games to keep me busy, I occupied myself with eating an exact serving size of teddy grahams , which is 47 cookies. Needless to say, it was a depressing break. This trouble led me to the conclusion that ,since I never needed to use these phones, I never learned how to use them. Which is really sad, during an actual emergency if i did not have my cell phone I would be very much in danger because I simply never educated myself on the ins and outs of older technology. In my defense, no one ever told me either. There is no instruction on my apartment phone about how to use it!

As mentioned above the weather proved to be an issue as well, with no phone or Internet to consult, I finally remembered that back in the old days people got the weather from the t.v. I was able to gather enough information to know that the pool was not an option. However I longed for the hour by hour of weather.com.

When I got back to my apartment I resigned to doing what women of yesteryear did to keep themselves busy: bake. The women of yesteryear probably did not eat their baked deserts for dinner though. After "dinner " I caught up on some much needed reading, which was bittersweet. The computer was staring at me mournfully, as it knew that I had several episodes of Gossip Girl to watch online. Finally I decided the get in bed and watch Dirty Dancing on T.V.

All in all the day wasn't as hard as I had expected, but I did realize all the things that we think we have to do actually seem to keep us busier. It was a relaxing day where I was able to do things that I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I just felt restrained and very alone without my phone.