CAT CALLS

i have been having an interesting experiment as of late.  a phoneless experiement.

i am renting a room in a beautiful flat/house in london and the woman who owns the place has a cat.  now i have never been much of a cat person, but the minute i meet this one, i'm like....'hey you're a dog/cat' which for me is the best kind of cat.  i don't actually know if it is a boy or a girl to be honest, but its name is misa ...or meesa...or something like that.  come to think of it, i should ask.  oh whatever...it's just a cat.  

ANNNNYWAY, this cat is really sweet and follows me around and comes when i call and eats DZOWN.  like, cannnnnnns of food.  it's a wonder it isn't rolling around this house like a fatcatsplat.  the other day, however, when i woke up, i grabbed my cel phone to take it with me for the day, i noticed there was no charge in it.  i had had it plugged in all night and thought, 'that's wierd...well, the switch on the plug must not have been on' (they have this smart thing here, where each outlet has a switch attached to it which actually helps save energy from constantly flowing to an unused plug....america!??  are you listening?)  

so, i just grabbed my charger and headed out, thinking i'll charge it when i get to my friend's house.  when i get there, i plug it in, and ....nothing.  at this point i'm like, 'ah screw...the connection must not be working'  i try a few different plugs....nothing.  grrrrrr, i think.  

and then i look down at the charger cord....and it is in two completely different pieces.

that little shit cat went to town on my charger cord while i was asleep and chewed right through it!  it actually made me laugh, but now....i haven't had time to go and get a new charger for my london mobile and for the last, almost week, i have been without a phone.

and i have to be honest....it has been kind of amazing.  

for starters, i haven't done that really annoying thing that i try not to do, of checking it all the time, while i am with people, or by myself.   i haven't looked for voicemails, i haven't just made a phone call that i don't REALLY need to make, just because i can.  i haven't texted (i don't text in the us, but i text here because my london phone is from 1978 and doesn't have email on it) i haven't had to excuse myself to take calls, or really.....be distracted at all by that little annoying (and necessary) machine.  

then i thought back to the time when none of us had them, and i wondered....could we all get by?  is this convenience REALLY necessary?  i mean, for cases of emergency, people always argue the importance of cel/mobile phones, but obviously there were emergencies in 1978, and no one had a phone permanently attached to their ear then....we got along just fine.  

it got me thinking....maybe i should try it.  maybe i should try to go without my cel phone when i get home.  maybe just for a month.  just for a 'communication break.'  just to see what changes, what i notice, what i engage in (or disengage from) i don't know.  just something i'm thinking about.

it will probably drive me totally crazy and i won't last a day, but....it's been an interesting little experiment i have been forced into....

by a funny little tubby kitty. 

thanks misa...or meesa....or whatever your name is.

peace

g

(ps. that is not the cat or my phone in the picture....but cute, no?)