Today I was told a package arrived at my old address for me, so I called my friend, a former neighbor, to ask her to take it for me.
I wish I had a recording of this call. I said, “Hi Ruth, it’s Deb.” The response was 100% dead silence. I could hear the pause, visualize her brain working as she tried to put things together, to assimilate the realization of this being the voice of a person with whom she is used to only infrequent emails.
It was so great to talk to her. I have been enjoying good old-fashioned style phone calls for a couple of weeks now, ever since I installed Vonage Mobile app (which no longer exists) on my iPhone. It requires good wi-fi so I won’t always be able to use it, which makes these calls even more of a treat.
Two weeks ago I sat on the beautiful flower-laden patio of Hostal Cumbres del Volcan and talked, iPhone to my ear like a “real” call, to my pal Mario for over an hour. We’d been trying to talk via Skype for months but I never had enough internet to maintain a connection for more than a couple of minutes. This was our first real, deep talk since I left the states.
I have had a couple of other opportunities to call home — via phone or an Android tablet’s VOIP app. Those times I’ve called my best gal-friend, Muna, or my mom. They are used to me calling. So is Mario now. But it is still fun to call them.
Many thanks again to my friend Mark Hartman (ACN, Mac expert), for telling me to get Vonage Mobile the day I needed to call my bank in person. Oh right… that’s another great thing about Vonage Mobile… when a service back home mandates that they must speak with you and your buddy can’t make the call for you, this lets you call. Because of this app, I even got to change the settings on my Apple stock in time for the dividend payout. (Who ever expected an Apple dividend?!) (If you know me as the Mac expert and author I have been since 1990/93, you have to know I have Apple stock, so no big divulgence of info there.) And yes, I call Mark to chat as well.