Lessons from a broken phone

The last few days we’ve had freakishly lovely weather. After several inches of snow last week, we’ve been basking in warm temps and sunny skies. To celebrate our liberation from our grey sky dungeon, I decided it would be a good idea to walk to my son’s school to pick him up.  I had the younger two all strapped in and ready to go in their stroller. I glanced down at the time and realized we were ready a whole TEN minutes early. That never happens. I was so proud of myself. With ten minutes to burn, I took a quick look around the garage and realized that I still needed to change the light bulb in our overhead garage door opener.

I pulled out our ladder. Climbed to the top. For whatever reason, I brought my phone right on up to the tippy-top too. I set it down on top of the ladder so that I could better examine the light socket. I quickly realized I was just a little bit too far away from the fixture to screw it in safely. So, ever mindful of not wanting to fall onto the garage floor, I scurried down the ladder and scooted it over a few more inches. That’s when it happened. The phone, which I had completely forgotten about, plummeted to the concrete floor.

FYI – If you drop your phone from an 8 ft ladder onto a concrete garage floor, there’s a good chance that the two of you won’t be on speaking terms any more.

My phone currently features the black screen of phone-death. No amount of weeping or gnashing of teeth will bring it back to life. Since then, I’ve learned a few lessons . . .

Lessons I’ve Learned

1. Never bring a phone up on a ladder. This seems incredibly obvious. Why did I do that? That was dumb. D.U.M.B.
2. My phone is my second brain. This is especially helpful when my first brain is suffering from a severe case of sleep deprivation and general mom fog. It reminds me of where I need to be and will even tell me how to get there. This is helpful seeing that I’m seriously challenged when it comes to directions. . . (I took the wrong path walking around the Grand Canyon once. Needless to say, I saw way more of the Canyon than I originally anticipated.)
3. I don’t really need to take as many pictures as I do. This morning I made a super awesome Frozen Chai Protein Smoothie in my Blendtec (affiliate). It was glorious. I even topped it off with whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon. My first thought was “I should take a picture of this and send it to my mom.” Then I realized the phone was dead and it wasn’t worth going through the effort of pulling out the regular camera, taking a picture, and uploading it to the computer. Maybe if it’s not worth the work of manually getting it online, it’s not worth sharing in the first place.
4. I’m a bit of a slave to the dings and notifications. I would never spend an entire day plopped right in front of my computer. I do however, frequently spend my day with my phone always in reach. When it would whistle and ding I’d naturally pick it up to see what was going on. I’d take a few minutes, check my e-mail, update a Facebook status, or scroll through Pinterest and then I’d go back to my normal routine (which usually involves tackling a mountain of laundry or vacuuming crushed goldfish crackers out of the carpet). Without all of those notifications, I find that I’m spending quite a bit less time online.
5. I use my phone more for the apps than for the calling features.  My youngest still occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night. When he does, I usually turn on the flashlight app on my phone and use it to navigate the dark house without having to turn on all the lights and wake everyone else up. I also depend on my phone’s alarm to wake me up in the morning. I need the coupon apps to help save me money (Yay for Hobby Lobby’s mobile 40% off coupon!) and I use the Bible App to do my daily devotions. My books are on my phone. My pictures are on my phone. My e-mail passwords are saved on my phone (I can NEVER remember what my passwords are). I use it to track my exercise and my meals, to look up recipes, and keep up with a housekeeping schedule (OK, let’s be honest, I haven’t opened up that particular app in a while).

So, in the meantime, I’m learning to adapt without it. It sounds crazy that this mobile device has become so integrated into my life that it feels like I’ve lost an appendage when it’s no longer available. Just four years ago, I seemed to manage life just fine without it.

Don’t get me wrong. Technology is fantastic in a thousand different ways. It is incredibly helpful and practical, but this brief phone hiatus makes me realize how dependent I’ve become on it. Maybe I’ve let it take over a little too much of my daily life. Because really, who needs to responds to a FB status within 30 seconds of it being posted?

The truth is, I’ll probably be a bit more productive without it. Maybe I’ll just put on some of my favorite music and finally tackle that laundry pile.

Oh wait . . .  my playlist is on my phone. Never mind.