Time is running out for the watch

So, way back on May 20, the Washington Post published an article on how text messaging is killing the cell phone bills of families with teenagers. The story cited a study by Teenage Research Unlimited that said "texting is the second most popular use for cellphones, right after using them to check the time." Funny, I always thought a phone's purpose was, you know, to call up other people. I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure we already have fancy gadgets designed to tell us the time. You know, oh what are they called? That's right, it's called a WATCH.

Call me old-fashioned, but I can't go anywhere without wearing a watch. Inside the house it doesn't matter, but literally, the moment I step outside, even if just to grab the mail, I feel its absence. Without the narrow metal band hugging my wrist, I feel naked and exposed. Yesterday, I got in the car to go to work and as soon as I sat down I realized I had forgotten my trusty timepiece inside. But I was running late and had to leave it behind. Seriously, I don't know how I made it through the day. I had to find a wall clock to monitor and at times even had to resort to using (gasp) my cell phone to figure out how long it was til I got to go home. I tell you, I barely made it through the day.

For as long as I can remember, I've worn a watch, though I graduated from the flowery blue and yellow bubble watch to the leather-strapped, gold-faced, Winnie the Pooh watch given to me one Christmas by one of my best friends. My current watch, which I've had since high school, has a metal link strap with a two-toned face. I still remember, a few weeks before Christmas one year, Mom asked me if I had liked any of the multicolored watches advertised in that week's department store circular, to which I replied not at all. Yet, Christmas morning, I unwrapped a small box and found a brand new green-and-blue-faced watch. I assured her that I truly liked this one, and to this day, I can't even tell you the number of compliments I've received on it.

Anyways, I got off topic. When I set out to write this post, I didn't actually intend to give you my entire watch-wearing history. I meant to point out how all this crazy technology is changing everything. Maybe that's how you know you're getting old - when you start to say, when I was a kid, things were done differently, and you're actually right. Seriously, when I was a kid, we actually played outside on real playgrounds and climbed real trees. None of this virtual reality, let's rot my mind by staring at a computer screen for 65 hours in a row crap. But a couple months ago, I realized just how intertwined my life has become with this computer, meaning I'm no exception to this tech craze, but that's another rant for another post.

Oh, and one last thing. Two days ago, I was sitting in my room on the computer, zoned out with the ipod headphones on, when I got a call on my cell phone. It was Papa calling from downstairs telling me that dinner was ready.