Wednesday, February 25, 2009

text the word "LENT" while speeding down I-15

Every year I give up something for lent. (The past 2 years is 'every year' to me.) I don't usually (I never) succeed for 40 days...is that how long it is?? But I try and I'm never sad when I fail because...I'm just not.

This year I decided I'd give up text messaging. Not completely. But my plan was that if a texting interaction took more than 2 texts I'd call the person.

By 10AM this morning I'd already had 3 conversations via text. One with my fiance Paul about wedding/love/lent. One with my brother Scott about getting some info to him about a project for a class he has, and finding a house key. And one with my friend Anne about hanging out later today. All 3 are people who I have no problem talking to, it's just that texting is my #1 way of communicating. Shortly after realizing that I'd already failed, I got a phone call from one of my cousins who needed Scott's phone number. I gave it to her and was off the phone in less than 20 seconds. I thought to myself that if I needed a number from someone I'd text them and they'd text me the number and then I could move my blackberry scroll ball over the number in the text and push one button and my phone would call that person, or I could scroll one line down and have the option to text the number I'd just recieved via text. Which is easier/quicker?? I started thinking about this last sunday while texting one of my other brothers, Taylor. We texted (is texted a word?) for about 30 minutes about the Celine Dion concert I'd just attended, the Oscars and our love of Slumdog, and one of his childhood friends who had just passed away. All topics that may have been easier and quicker to talk about/get informed about by talking, but we just kept texting and texting and texting...

So, then I decided I might try and give up speeding. While thinking about habits that are hard to change or give up I noticed that in about a 4 miles stretch of road I went at least 10 over, 3 times. It's hard to go the speed limit! And most of the time when I catch myself speeding I'm just going with the flow of traffic. I'm not flying past people, or weaving in and out to get ahead. I'm just keeping up with all the other people in the world who are in a hurry.

So, here is what I've decided. I'm gonna kind of combine the two and try not to be such an over-acheiver. I'm going to give up texting while I'm driving. I do this a lot. So now maybe I'll text less in general, and I'll pay more attention to the road and my driving. Happy Lent!...er...Ash Wednesday...er...whatever...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thts a good one. I hear it might become a law.

Cat said...

It is a law in California... I might still do it anyway... Best of luck with that!