Reality Crashing In
Posted on January 7, 2011
On my first day of my vacation, I lost my phone.I lost it somewhere on the plane as I was flying down to Atlanta. Still haven’t heard from Delta as to whether they found it.
When you are on vacation, not having access to a phone is a guilty pleasure. You don’t check it every thirty seconds because, well, you don’t have something to check. And pretty soon, you forgot that you ever needed one.
But eventually – at least in my world – I need a phone. I need to connect to clients, to family, to friends, to the world.
And not having a phone becomes a crisis.
I am currently in a crisis, because I still don’t have a phone.
This is no longer a guilty pleasure. Now I am just guilty of being disconnected.
One of the things about vacationing in Mexico is that they make it awfully difficult down there to stay connected. The internet rates are extraordinarily expensive (10 bucks an hour), and the service itself is uneven, which makes it even easier to say to yourself, hey, I am going to stay disconnected.
Vacations are all about being disconnected from reality, even for a little while.
The person who most enjoys it when I am disconnected from my hand-held device is my little son, Jack. He hates it when I tap away at my iPhone, especially when he is trying to get my attention.
So being disconnected from reality was good for him.
But now, reality is crashing back in.
On vacation, I would catch Fox News every once in a great while. It was gratifying to see John Boehner take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi. It was nice to see that the President was dumping his Press Secretary.
But on vacation, none of that matters that much if you have a little guy who wants to get to the beach.
Well, beach time is over. It is time to get back to work. It is time to get a new phone. It is time to get re-connected. It is time for reality to crash in.