I am proud of myself in that in the past couple of years I have moved into the texting arena. I still dislike texting, as it takes so much time to type out a message on the itty-bitty keyboard with my fat fingers, but I can do so if necessary. More often than not, I hit the wrong keys and have to make corrections, but at least I can eventually send a simple message. However, I would much rather call someone and hope they don’t answer so I can leave a voicemail. Except for nine times out of ten, they never listen to the voicemail. They just see that I called and call back, and then I have to actually talk to them. I will say that in this era of modern technology, voicemail and email have been a godsend, except when I am trying to get ahold of someone and can never get through to a live person.

So I am now semi-proficient at sending a text. The problem is receiving texts. Since I dislike texting and do not have my phone surgically attached to my body like a lot of people, I rarely notice when a text message comes in. If I check text messages once a day, it’s a rarity. Usually, I think to check text messages once or twice a week. Most of my text responses start with, “Sorry, I am just now seeing this message.” It’s particularly embarrassing when the message is something that requires immediate attention. Oh well. I figure if something is important enough to demand an immediate response, the person sending the message is taking a huge risk that I will look at their message in a timely manner. They should use the old-fashioned way of communicating by calling me. I hate the fact that someone may perceive my lack of response to a text as my not caring about whatever it is they are trying to tell me. But most people who know me well realize that getting my attention with a text message is a crap shoot at best.

What I really don’t like is that now doctors’ offices and other important appointment reminders come by text. Surely I can’t be the only patient who doesn’t check text messages. Good thing for them I usually resort to writing my appointments on my calendar. Yes, an actual, honest-to-goodness calendar that hangs on my refrigerator where I will be sure to see it. Not a reminder on my cell phone or my computer. I haven’t gotten that tech-savvy yet. I can only do so much tech stuff before my head explodes. What’s even worse is that many of these appointments now want you to check in via text or electronically, which takes ten times longer than walking up to an actual person at a window and saying, “I’m here for my appointment.”

I don’t know why, but I am always somewhat dumbfounded when I send a text to someone, and within a minute, they reply. Wow! Is everyone but me so attached to their phone? Doesn’t anyone ever run the vacuum cleaner when they can’t hear their phone? Doesn’t anyone leave their phone in their purse while they’re at work? Doesn’t anyone go out to check their mailbox without first grabbing their phone? Doesn’t anyone listen to the sermon at church?

Sometimes I long for the days when we could pile in the car and go somewhere where nobody could get in touch with us for a whole thirty minutes. Now, if we go out for a family dinner and get halfway to the restaurant without Hubby’s phone, he turns around and goes back to retrieve it. Heaven forbid someone send a text he won’t see until he gets home. I even remember the days when we took whole vacations without being in touch with anyone unless we called them from our destination. Even if we did so, we couldn’t talk long because it was long-distance which cost a small fortune. Of course, that was also back in the day when we traveled via road maps rather than GPS, but that’s an issue for another day. It was amazing how the world went on without us for a week and nothing dire happened. Now, Hubby can’t resist yakking to someone who just called to chat while he takes a guided tour, a nature walk (where the object is to be quiet and commune with nature), or relaxes by the pool. Unless we are in the middle of the ocean—which is why I like cruises—anyone can interrupt us anywhere.

Okay, I’ve probably offended several people by implying I don’t want to communicate with them. This really wasn’t my intention. Maybe I need to send a group text to apologize. Wait . . . I’m not sure I know how to group text.