A lesson in humillity. . .

I've upgraded my cell phone to the kind that receives and sends e-mail, can text more easily, can Twitter, tells me how the market is doing, and even has a GPS app. Not so terrific is the fact that there isn't a real keyboard anywhere in sight. Everything is done on screen , they tell me, through the heat of your fingertip. Yeah. Riight.

Have you ever sat next to a 12 year old with one of these phones? They are texting away with their two thumbs while looking in the other direction, talking on the phone and eating a McDonald's hamburger, all at the same time. I refuse to believe I am not as smart as a 12 year old, but let me tell you, this has been a humbling experience.

It's taken a few days but I seem to have mastered the e-mail situation, both reading and replying. Can't vouch for my spelling.. .that damn virtual keyboard! I must have very hot fingers, because 50% of the time the wrong letter pops up. I can take photos and send to my computer (see photo of Ginger, asleep on my desk and annoyed that I woke her with the flash). I can also answer the phone just fine, if I realize it's ringing. I was used to the melody on my old phone and tend not to recognize this new one just yet.

My real problem seems to be making a phone call. The nice young lady in the Sprint storedownloaded the phonebook from my last phone. . . and by the time I scroll through what seems like a thousand names, to find who I'm looking for, I've forgotten who I'm calling. Under A, for instance, I have four people named Allan, and under S, several people named Sergio, all with no last names and all with different phone numbers. I think I need to do a little housecleaning in that departmen

My old phone had a "quick dial" function and I knew the location of those ten numbers by heart. I also knew how to find anyone else in my contact list. I'm sure there's an easier way of doing this, but this morning, in the car, I desperately needed to call Benard before he left for Costco, and couldn't for the life of me find him in the "People" list. Since I needed one hand to drive and two hands to actually try to dial his number on the virtual screen, I gave up trying. (I tried sending him a "virtual" mind message, but I doubt that it worked.)

I taught my daughter and my grandson to always say "yes, I can" to something new, and then figure out how to do it. And boy, am I trying to live up to that wise advise. It's an interesting exercise. . a few minutes ago I found that I can actually watch CNN news on the phone. . .amazing.

Now, if I can just figure out how to find your name in my "People" list, I'll be glad to ring you up and tell you all about it.

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Photo caption: Photo taken from my new phone and whisked to my computer! The wonders of technology!