Brian and I started dating a few weeks after we graduated from high school in 1995. A few months into our summer romance, our four year, long distance relationship began. It was painful and sad, but thanks to the telephone and writing letters, we could keep in touch. Except, for us to talk on the phone it cost us a bajillion dollars every single month, so we tried to write each other letters, as in letters sent via the United States Postal Service every other day. It worked out really well, especially since the days of communicating through chat room, e-mail or cell phone seemed light years away.
I can remember when Brian presented to me, at some point in the mid to late nineties, the idea of e-mail. He seemed excited and knowledgeable about the whole concept and I should have trusted him, especially since he was working towards a Computer Science degree, but I couldn’t help but feel suspect. I thought he was trying to find a way to get out of sending these letters, but I reluctantly accepted his offer for him to create an e-mail address from some foreign service called Hotmail. And we would send e-mails to each other.
And then we would receive them three days later. I would sit down and check my e-mail and FINALLY, after checking for three days, over 100 times, there would be something in my inbox. And it would say something like "did you get this? isn’t it great?" And that would be it.
That form of communication frustrated me and I needed to correspond with this love of mine as often as possible, so I asked that we still correspond by actually sitting down and writing letters. And he complied because he’s wonderful like that.
And as you know, technology improved. I remember the first time I felt like I was being stalked by technology. We were newlyweds living in a high rise apartment in Chicago and I had run to Target. Target to me was a brand new thing and I adored it and I remember on this particular occasion I had spent like $70. I was freaking out that I had spent so much. These days, if I spent only $70, Brian would send me a thank you card. But back then, to me, I felt like I had just done something very, very wrong.
I walked into the apartment with my goods in my hands and Brian said "wow, I can’t believe you spent SEVENTY DOLLARS at Target."
I froze and thought, "OH MY GOD, Target called him."
But no, he had checked his account on-line and in the ten minutes it had taken me to get home, his account was already telling on me.
It took me a long to to forgive his computer for ratting me out. In fact, it took me a long to embrace technology. Brian still laughs at me that when he first had a laptop and provided us with wireless access, I was all like "that’s just dumb, who needs to sit with a computer on their lap on the couch? No, thank you!"
But he insisted and put it on my lap and it hasn’t left since.
Yes, things sure have changed, just yesterday I placed an enormous order with Amazon.com to help my Christmas shopping along and yesterday I received FIVE e-mails saying my items had shipped.
I appreciate these changes and advancements in technology, but what I appreciate most is having a box full of letters from Brian, sitting in a box in the basement that will last forever and ever.
I’m truly grateful that I’m not ten years younger.
