Technology

Isn't technology something to watch? Last night before going to bed, I decided to check my email. I also logged onto AIM to see who was online. (For those who are not sure what aim is-is there anyone who isn't? It stands for AOL instant messenger. It allows you to chat online.) I laughed when I saw my son, who is away at college, his sister, who just moved with my grandson an hour away, and my 18 year old daughter. She was just downstairs, but I couldn't resist IM'ing them to comment that over half our family was online. If truth be told, the youngest 2 siblings would have been online also, but because they have to get up early, they were in bed. Michael, my husband was also online, but for some reason, he doesn't like "talking" via instant message.

I was pretty proud of myself for having 3 chat boxes open at one time, and being able to carry on 3 different conversations. For those that don't know, I do not multi-task well. Then my oldest invited us all to a chatroom where we proceeded to carry on our conversations together.

Wow! It was just like sitting around the dinner table, well, almost. Chatter back and forth, humor bordering on sarcasm, confusion as to what these two are talking about, inquiries as to why everyone new but me (from the younger of the 3), and just back-and-forth bantering. My oldest was sharing pics of Ethan, via her cell phone camera. He had her portable phone tucked in his pants, pretending it was his pocket cell phone. But he didn't have pockets in his pajamas.



I finally told them I really needed to go to bed, expressed how much fun it had been, but how I felt a bit bad that the whole family hadn't been there. El replies that her youngest sister is there, just a silent partner listening. Grrrr....I thought she was in bed. Oh well. I miss having my two oldest living here and the whole family together every night. But, when dinnertime rolls around tomorrow, I only have to call downstairs to 3 cell phones to tell them dinner is ready. Or maybe I will just get online and message them all at once as a means of ringing the dinner bell. The dinner bell...now that brings up an array of memories of times when communication wasn't so high tech. I'll save those for another day.