two lovely phoneless days making new friends
I love a good airplane window shot. This one was taken years ago. Because you know, on this trip, I didn’t have a phone.
After turning in my manuscript (and thinking I’d have a solid month off before having to edit, but no, my editor is fast as lightning, it’s a little bit frightening, dammit), Marcus and I headed to Chicago for a whirlwind parents’ weekend. We set eyes on our daughter (she’s fine), met her friends (they’re lovely), did a ton of administrative stuff (sorted), and returned home. Four days later, I left for Dayton, Ohio, to speak at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, a sweet biennial conference that I’ve attended over the past 10 years. In order to make the flights work, I was picked up at my house at 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, for a 5 a.m. flight.
And 5 minutes before I arrived at the airport, I realized that I’d left my phone at home.
At first, I was disappointed, but not worried. After all, when I first began traveling for work, cell phones didn’t exist, and I managed fine. Besides, I don’t really get that many calls and I had my laptop in my backpack if anything became urgent. I’d even brought a couple of books with me for entertainment, so I couldn’t imagine that I would miss the phone too badly. I’d be fine.
And then I got to the airport and thought, I’ll just text Alex and Marcus to let them know that I don’t have my ph … oh.
When I arrived in Dayton, my driver was nowhere to be found, so I thought, I’ll just call the service to see where … oh.
Followed immediately by No worries, I’ll just grab an Uber … oh.
Once I finally found my driver, I began thinking of how to organize my day and realized that I had to wake up early the next morning. So, I’ll just set my alarm to … oh.
And finally, I looked at my watch, and was surprised how early it was, until I remembered that Dayton is an hour ahead of Houston, and my smartwatch links to my … oh.
I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with how reliant I am on my phone – and also, thank God for phones, amiright? Luckily, it was just a two-day trip, and I managed. I had the driver take me to Target on the way to the hotel so I could buy a cheap watch set to local time for the duration of my trip. The conference went well, and the folks who came to my sessions were incredibly kind and generous and engaged, which is always so fun for me. And I met talented writers who felt like immediate friends (I’m looking at you, Ann Galvin and Lisa Roe). A tiring, but really good, heartful trip.
As I type this, I’m at 30,000’, on the final leg of my journey back to Houston. I’m looking forward to sitting still for a while. And this manuscript isn’t going to edit itself.
a reminder of cadence.