Hello, Thailand!

I love technology. Probably because when we were growing up we thought Pong was the most technologically challenging game EVER... so pretty much anything beyond that is impressive to me. When I went to college and my friend Nicole had a word processor (for the younger readers... that's basically a typewriter that could save one document to a floppy disk) she was the hit of our dorm floor. I borrowed her superior technology frequently so I didn't have to trek to the computer lab in exchange for maybe helping her "correctly word" a few papers of her own. To clarify, I didn't write them... I just "worded" them. Big difference.

We also tried to force technology to happen a few times, to no avail. On a summer trip home to my parents' house, Nicole and I were driving in separate cars and couldn't really stomach the idea of following each other for 2 hours and not talking. And because we were brilliant but poor college students who couldn't afford those new-fangled cell phones we decided to do this:

Don't try this at home, kids... because walkie-talkies don't work in moving cars. Thank God cell phones became an affordable option.

My world really opened up when I got a home computer during college. It was a used model and had the capacity to write a paper and check email. Imagine my surprise when I was writing an email one day and my friend Doug, who was in a student exchange program, instant messaged me. I had NO IDEA what was happening, and he had to type me instructions about what buttons to push and how to respond. Thank God I had friends who kept me relevant. He just IM'd me the other day to fill me in on his wife and three kids... sometimes it blows me away how much our lives have changed on every level.

And now, here I am ... literally confined to my home but thanks to technology, connecting with the world. I've been doing this blog such a short time and have gotten emails from people in Thailand, Switzerland and Belgium. Who knew a cute dog could attract attention from people so far away? [Even my brother Hoody figured out how to leave a comment on a post. :)] It's been lovely feeling so connected to the world again without having to leave my little sanctuary... thanks for being on the receiving end of my little quips, people. It's been nice having you around.