Being Mobile

Speaking of the coop and olden times, I remember distinctly one wintery day. I had gotten out of work and gone to the gym and had *not* showered (there are times when the argument for just getting home and taking a warm shower in the comfort of your flat overrides the argument for uhh just smelling decent in public situations. Fuck that. I did not like the grimy shower stalls at the gym, and hated it more when I forgot my anti-persp.). As I was saying. I was headed home, hunched up in smelly fashion in my gym sweatshirt and hoping the smell wasn't seeping into my coat. Yet.

I used to own the largest fucking mobile phone in the world those days. Like imagine the blue phone with the dial that you had in the 80s? That you got after a waiting period of nearly a year, and that too, you got it that quickly because your uncle was a government servant? Well, like that. Only not so blue. Mercifully, black in colour it was. But just as huge.

It rang. WOW. Where on earth is the sucker, among all my effects? Gym bag. Shoes. Papers. Miles of tissue (my nose constantly leaked all winter long. Damn New England weather). I remember I finally dug it out and stuck it in my ear. It was the husband, I think. No one else called on it. I rarely speak on the phone, even now. I occasionally converse with the mater. But have trained her to text as well. So text it is. Preferred mode of contact? Text, please. SMS, if you will.

With the phone clutched in one ear, tissues in the other, missing the chapstick that was hidden in yet another pocket, I remember looking in the coop, and wondering who on earth would buy a stuffed bear wearing a maroon tshirt that said MIT, for $35. Yep, you guessed it. I came close to buying it for the child last week. Thankfully, I hooked a right turn and got her a book and a t-shirt, instead. Much better use of my $35, thank you very much, I said, looking out and seeing the young me hunched up in my smelly grey sweatshirt outside staring at the bear. I smelled better too, having not forgotten my anti-persp. this time around... Plus, my mobile phones, both of them, are smaller, though only marginally smarter...