The only technology I used to need was a pocket calculator.

I'm sitting here at work and both of my bosses are gone for the rest of the day so I'm completely and totally goofing off for the next 3 hours.

And what that means is that I am currently sitting at my desk looking at the following:

1. My tablet is plugged into my computer being charged.
2. I have my larger capacity mp3 player sitting next to my computer because I just downloaded some new music on it (Alabama Shakes! $5.99 on Amazon.com!).
3. My smaller capacity mp3 player is plugged into my computer because I also just downloaded my new Alabama Shakes album on it too and it's charging.
4. My phone needs charged some but I'm out of places to plug it in my computer and I don't want to crawl up under my desk to plug it into the wall so I'll wait and charge it in my car on the way home.
5. I have my headphones plugged in and hanging on my head so I can listen to music on Spotify.
6. I have Pinterest pulled up on my screen (well, I did until I started blogging) to find something to make for my lunches and dinners next week and I'm searching for something fun to take as a side dish for football watching tomorrow.

What has happened to me??  I used to look up stuff in cook books.  I used to hold my boom box next to my stereo speakers to record stuff. I used to use a pencil to wind up my cassette tapes when they started getting loosey goosey.   And that worked for me just fine.  When did I get so spoiled?  Now I think I need a smaller memory mp3 player to use strictly for yard work because it has a clip on it and I can clip it onto my shirt and another mp3 player with a larger memory so that I have enough songs at my beck and call that I could drive back and forth to work for 2.5 months, one hour each way, without having to listen to the same song twice.  (That reminds me.  I need to download a couple of Beck songs.)  I know people who used to have a Mr. Microphone for goodness sakes and we thought it was SO high tech.  And I probably thought the black dude dancing down the street in the ad was cool back then too.

"Hey good looking!  We'll be back to pick you up later!"

Since when do I need all of this stuff?  My purse weighs about 10 pounds more than it used to back in the day because I'm toting around technology that's supposed to be making my life way better, more productive and easier.  Yet my back hurts from carrying it, I'm always looking for a place to plug something in, and I complain when something isn't loading quickly enough on a website.  You know, as I'm looking up super important stuff such as what those white fuzzy bugs are when my friends and I saw some flying around a couple of weeks ago in the backyard.  Or when I was looking up videos of Maru, the funny Japanese cat who runs and dives into boxes and slides across floors and walks around with paper bags on his head to show my neighbor while she was at my house painting last weekend.  I mean, that could not wait for a second so it's a good thing I had several forms of technology right at my fingertips so we could survive the day.

And two weeks ago I was sitting in a bar in Little 5 Points and looking up the name of the hotel where Bobby Kennedy was shot while we were in the middle of watching a football game because somehow we got on that topic and out of six grown ass people none of us could remember.  In their defense, two of the friends I was with are from Amsterdam so maybe they shouldn't be expected to know.  Really?  This is stuff I urgently need to know?  How about going to the library and looking it up in an encyclopedia?  It was good enough for us back in the 80s!  Okay, no.  I don't want to do that again.

I remember when I would ask my dad where some country was and he didn't say, "Look it up on your iPhone there, missy."  Instead he would say, "I could tell you because I know.  But go in the next room and find it on the globe.  It's near _______ and _______ but you need to find it for yourself because then you'll probably remember where it is."  And he was right.  Of course half of the countries have changed since then with wars and stuff and now I look them up on my iPhone. 

The last time I used my phone for an actual phone call was two days ago.  Apparently I've been too busy using it to look up hillbillies dancing with racoons to an Aretha Franklin song.

Sadly, as I'm sitting here I've forgotten the name of the hotel where Bobby Kennedy was killed already.  But thankfully I have a tablet, a desktop computer, and my iPhone all within arms reach so I can find out.

But I remember those fuzzy bugs are called woolly aphids.  Hey!  I did learn something from my iPhone.

*The Ambassador Hotel.  I looked it up.  (On my desktop in case you care.)