Off the grid.

I was going to write about something entirely different, but then my smartphone called it quits on me. For good. As I decided to do the platform update both the network carrier and the manufacturer recommended it chose to froze for a few hours in the middle of backing up data and never unfroze again. Pulling the battery out as many times as I tried it accomplished nothing but brought me back to the same progress screen over and over. I quickly realized that I chose odd timing for such experimentation. Thursday is Thanksgiving so everything will be closed, the day after is Black Friday, when although some businesses will be open and make a killing, mostly stores, services like city buses will not run and possibly couriers will not deliver. I already knew that UPS will not work Saturday and Sunday so if I waited any longer it'd be until sometime next week until I got a working phone. On Monday I'm supposed to be having an important conversation with a client, how can I do it  without it? To make matters more complicated, when I tried to submit a claim to my insurer, even as I chatted with a live agent, I was told I need to call their number to verify it. No amount of explanation that I don't have a phone to call from seemed sufficient. My laptop barely boots up for me to use Skype on and I'm waiting on a new one. By some miracle it did on a fifth try. After paying a deductible that I could buy a new phone for I was told to expect one tomorrow. But it got me thinking about the extent we rely on technology again. I went to a birthday dinner at a restaurant maybe two months ago. All the guests were social and interacting with a 1000 of their closest Facebook friends just not with each other. It felt odd to me how everybody was much more involved with their own portable world on the screen that anything actually happening around them. Birthday boy's parents, a couple in their 60's perhaps didn't have a smartphone on the table and felt very excluded. But then I thought about my own behavior. How I pull my phone out constantly to check time. How when it's not there something is missing. How I've learnt to check my messages every chance I get. How when there's something I'm waiting for I even wake up throughout the night to see if it's urgent. But it feels good to go off the grid for a while. I can just relax and enjoy my night for once with the world waiting at home. Without the guilt that there are people that I need to get back to right away. How do I get so worked up? I really enjoyed getting off the grid, if only for a day. Hopefully today I'll get back to things as they are. Blackberry surely owes me. After I put up with their operating system that kept freezing on me they better make it up to me. Either way this week is Thankgiving. With no family in town [or country], I'll dedicate this time to self reflection and eating. I don't expect to  blogging until Monday. Have a great and warm holiday