m wood pen

 yesterday i was in the kitchen with hallie and corey…all of us in the same space but in entirely different universes, thanks to our addiction to our smarty pants iphones.

i heard corey mention, in whispered tones, “the cubs” to her fabulous pal, athena marie.  without missing a beat, i said, “9th inning.”

now, my saying this is, much less knowing this, about as bizarre as doris day joining a harley gang.

corey looked up with a stunned look on her face.  i said, again, “it’s the ninth inning.  noel’s there. i just got a text from him.”

“NOEL’S AT THE CUBS GAME?” she screamed, “i didn’t KNOW!”

okay, first of all, you may have had to be there to get how funny this little weird exchange was. we don’t really talk about sports.  ever.  (poor noel, so outnumbered in this siren-filled domain) but my point is this: our gadgets takes us out of our lives over and over again, and yet, they also pull us together, into each other’s moments.  maybe good, maybe bad, maybe both.

funny that she wasn’t really interested in the game, or the cubs, or anything, actually.  i think the teenybopper conversation was cued in to what some boy happened to have posted on fb, and control central over here had picked up on the radar.  fascinating news.  everyone’s comings and goings and now we  can see WHO THEY’RE WITH and WHAT THEY’RE EATING too.

how did i exist without this vital information before this moment in incomprehensible techno times?

just so you know, i’m as bad as the teens.  i love fb.  as you know, hallie and i created a profile for astro yesterday.  he has about 50 friends, and the requests are coming out of the woodwork: college kids, parents of my kids friends, cousins: everyone wants IN on astro’s fabulous life.

yes, i use fb, blogs, tumblr, twitter, linkedin to help earn my living which we all know i really need, what with these crazy college kids racking up the bills.  so, i’m embracing it, i really am, but i also think that i have to enforce a gadget time out every now and then.

sure, as a parent with one and almost two children living in chicago on their own, i feel pretty glad knowing they are literally a finger tap away.  but it’s just that: they get to live in the city, the tot gets to live out here in the country with me (not sure if that’s good or bad, for her!), and i worry that we’re all missing our NOW when we steer our attention too often to everything else that’s happening away from us.

so, i may incorporate this in a maternal lecture tomorrow while we’re all lugging boxes, chairs, bar stools, dishes, books (yes, nice to include those for a college students casa) and all of the knickknacks that are going to cozy up hallie’s new digs.

shut off the things.  breathe in your view.  take a walk and be open to what’s just around the corner, with no warning, no tweet to direct you, no message to fill you in before you get there.

just take a chance and be.  free.