When Convenience Makes You Crazy

Modern technology is a life vest for me when Brandon is deployed. My phone is basically an extra appendage. I get spoiled with short phone calls and emails daily. We even get to see each other frequently on Skype! What a blessing, especially now that we have Eli. Brandon is able to see him all the time. It just makes me so happy! But when those phone calls or emails don't come on schedule I turn into a complete lunatic. Seriously. Let me tell you a little story...

For the first month Brandon was gone we were able to talk daily on Skype or he could call from his weird foreign cell phone. Every morning and every evening I would get a Skype call. He had internet in his room so he would leave his Skype on all day and I could call him and most of the time he would be available. It was wonderful! Almost like he was just at work, here at Fort Campbell. Convenient right? That's how technology tricked me! Brandon moved to another area and no longer has personal internet. No more Skype. I couldn't get in touch with him whenever I wanted. After a few days of no calls or emails I went a little mad. I broke down his crazy phone number, found the country code, and figured out how to call him. So I dialed. I knew it was probably not the best idea. I doubt the Army gave him this cell phone for personal use. But I rationalized. I was just going to call once and it probably wouldn't work anyway. Right? Well, it did. After about 7 rings a recording, not in English, let me know that Brandon was unavailable (I'm assuming that's what the recording stated). Okay, cool. No problem. He just couldn't get to the phone. Then I became a victim of the snowball effect. After 10 phone calls, an attempt to text message, and a panicked email I realized I had crossed over to a dark place. And I was going to hear about it. Brandon finally got to his phone and called me back. Poor guy was totally freaked out and thought there was some emergency with me or Eli. You can imagine how crappy I felt when the first thing out of his mouth was "What's wrong? Is Eli okay?". I had to reply with the truth, "Uh, yeah. I just wanted to talk to you". Not good.

So after this moment of insanity I realized that the convenience of super awesome technology can really drive you nuts! My Dad always reminds me about his time in Vietnam. He was dating my Mom and they only had "snail mail" to rely on for communication. He would write her a letter that would take weeks to arrive. Then she would write back. By the time the communication came full circle it had been over a month. Oh man, I don't know if I could make it.

Back in the day, when only Zack Morris had a cell phone, you had to call someone's house and if they weren't home you just had to wait. Email was certainly not instantaneous. You remember the AOL dial tone. If technology was still in that state there would be no way I would get to communicate with my deployed husband so readily. So yes, I'm so grateful for modern day technology and the opportunity to talk to Brandon and Skype with him often. We're so lucky that he's able to see Eli and Eli can see him too. I just need to remember the convenience of technology is a treat. I can't let it's absence drive me crazy!