This is 39. Working, kids, juggling many balls in the air, blah blah blah. Just like you. Also, just like you, I'm attached to my smart phone. I maintain many friendships through convenient text messaging even though I feel guilty. I use it to house all of my contacts, store passwords, recipes, photos. I use it for banking, emails, music, weather, Netflix, and tracking my menstrual periods for the love of God. Everything. So last night, in the midst of the usual chaos (kids got home late from dance, one has a project due in the morning, the other three have homework, showers, cooking meals for the rest of the week, the list goes on), someone forgot to take the dog out. He decided that our bed was the best place to let us know that he was forgotten. As soon as I sat down with this computer to start editing, I realized, grabbed the comforter, shoved it in the washing machine (while muttering "I don't have time for this"), pressed start, and got to work. Sigh.

 I'm a multi-tasker and a damn good one. With my trusty phone by my side, I respond relatively quickly to all of the demands of my day. So along with the piss-stained comforter, my iPhone took an hour-long bath in the permanent press cycle of our washing machine, discovered by my husband who said "you threw someone's iPod in the washer." Crap, I thought. That sucks. When I went out to check whose life I just ruined, I dreadfully discovered that it was mine! I. About. Died. "The rice, get the rice, a bag of rice now!!!!" I know this because I once dropped my Blackberry back in the day in a health club toilet, then proceeded to get on a treadmill, grab a magazine, and open it up to find an article on what to do if your cell phone gets wet. I now realize that was a practice run...for THIS! I rushed to the pantry, got the phone in the rice, sealed the bag, and said a prayer to a newly appointed patron saint of washed iPhones, or Steve Jobs, or whoever would hear my cries. All night long through periods of fitful sleep I woke up panic-stricken: "I don't have an alarm, I hope I have a recent iCloud backup, I don't know anyone's phone number, what is my password for this, that, and the other thing?" I'm an idiot. I realize these symptoms mark the beginning of the withdrawal period...

     In the morning, I ran frantically to the rice bag, made the sign of the cross and tried to turn it on. Nothing. Crap. I put it back in the rice and move to the "tech cabinet" (I'm anal retentive, the cabinets have names) and grabbed my very first iPhone from 5 years ago and plugged it in. As I went through the process of running a factory restore on this ancient piece of technology, and downloading my iCloud backup (5 days ago, better than nothing) to it, it turned out I had nothing more than a paperweight. "Why do I participate in this nonsense?" I asked myself. Nine hours in, I'm feeling desperate. It was time to drop off kids at school and drive to work. Drive with no phone. What if something happened? Of course I run into major traffic and would take me a long while to get to work. Typically in this case, I would politely ask Siri to text a colleague letting them know my ETA. No Siri today. I'm pissed at her too. As I went along with the stop and go of traffic, many things crossed my mind: "Radio sucks, morning shows should be banned, who the hell got rid of pay phones??????" I was lost. 

     Throughout the day, I told my story to several people, many of who already knew about the rice. It's in the rice, I assured them. The best advice I got was to put it in the dryer to complete the cycle (I've got this in my back pocket in case of rice failure). As today progressed, I found myself multi-tasking less. Usually in meetings and conference calls, I'm simultaneously checking my emails and moving multiple tasks along as needed. I couldn't do that today. Naturally, I felt like things weren't getting accomplished as they should and it bothered me. But, I did feel little pangs of what could it be...relief? Clarity? That was weird. Go away...

     Later in the afternoon, I attended a bridal shower that I helped plan for a co-worker, and the worst thing that happened was I ate cake. But I am almost 40 and phoneless so cake was in order. Everyone had their phones on the table next to them at the table, the place where I usually keep mine. Sigh. I feel single at a table full of couples. The mutant at table 9. I hadn't spoken to my husband, parents, friends, or received stalker-ish text messages from my children all day. There were no "Mom, when are you coming home?? Come home now, PLEASE!!!!!" messages. It made me nervous, but at the same time I felt pangs of what could this be now....freedom? Hmmmm....

     My drive home from a place where I wasn't exactly sure of the directions, without a GPS. I suck at directions. I passed at least 3 Verizon stores. The only thing stopping me was the little bit of hope I had that my phone would turn on when I got home. As soon as I got there I ran straight for the rice bag...but it was gone!! What the @#$%??? My mother-in-law was here, she wouldn't know what the rice bag was all about, check the pantry!! Sure enough, there it was. Not flat, but right side up with all the rice at the bottom of the bag and my phone sticking out. I love that woman to death, but there's a phone in the rice. That would be a red flag for me, but, everyone is different and we love them just the same. I'm not sure how many hours we've lost in Operation Dry Out Phone. So I tried to turn it on. Dead. Back in the rice, seal the bag. Phoneless still. 

     At that moment as I felt a mixture of emotions, I sunk down to the kitchen floor and planned out my next steps. One of the things I thought about was, when I was a child, my Mom never had a phone in her hand. She never checked emails, she never texted, she never took pictures with it, she never checked Facebook. I do. I have to, to a certain extent. But certainly not to the extent to which I do. It's all just too much. So, at that moment, I vowed to wait it out for 4 days and disconnect. Once a day, I will check to see if my phone turns on. I will not buy another phone...yet. I will restructure the way I manage my day. I will pick up a landline and call the people in my life. I will not be able to respond as quickly as I usually do, but I will respond in MY time. By being so reachable all the time, I realized I don't have any time that is MINE. The time in my car will be mine. I will use it to think, reminisce, and plan. For the next three days, I will be 39 and phoneless. 24 hours down...