No e-mail? Just Slit My Wrists

I can live without many so-called necessities: air conditioning, a cell phone, TV, pajamas...but I start to get the shakes when deprived of my e-mail.

Such was the case most of the weekend and I was like a junkie jonesing for relief.

And it wasn't even that I didn't have any Internet across the board.

I could still blog (although I couldn't moderate comments), access my secondary e-mail account (but most anyone that matters uses my primary one) and log on to Facebook to see whose panties were in a wad about what.

But no primary e-mail.

Luckily, a few brave souls picked up the phone.

My best friend from out west called and we talked for an hour.

A good friend called to invite me to spend a beautiful afternoon in Byrd Park and a music geek friend called to salivate over the upcoming Bela Flek show at UR last night (not a single empty seat, nor should there have been for such musical magnificence).

But for someone who craves communication like I do, I still felt cut off.

The bright side was that when I finally was able to get back into my e-mail this morning, it was like Christmas.

All kinds of good things were waiting for me: e-mails from friends wanting to get together this week, comments on my blog posts, an invitation to a wine dinner and, of course, a couple of smart-assed friends just giving me a hard time.

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Velocity Girl*

Since I never gave in and joined the masses by getting a cell phone, I've taken a boatload of crap from friends (and family) over the years about being unreachable.

It drives people crazy that they can't just call me when they want me. I like to remind them that they can e-mail me or message me on Facebook and I always respond, but no one I know finds that an acceptable method of communication.

The fact is, I hate the phone and don't have any desire to be reachable 24/7.

So you can imagine my surprise when a friend (acquaintance? neighbor?) accused me of being just as connected as people with cells because I have a blog and am on Facebook.

I told him that I had friends who would consider those fighting words when it comes to me. As one good friend responded, "Clearly he's never tried to get hold of you in the evening."

And it's true; once I leave the house to begin my evening, you'd have to run into me physically to talk to me.

Being outside the connected mainstream doesn't necessarily make me a bad person (maybe slightly old school). Back in the mid-90s, long before everyone carried their own phone, I bought a t-shirt with a 1950s- looking guy pictured, pointing and saying, "I'm out of the loop and that's the way I like it."

The more things change, the more they stay the same...for some of us. So what?

(*With apologies to Sarah Shannon, whose voice I love. No comparison between Sarah and me was intended.)