Less Parties and More Crafting, Please!

With all the partying, how is one to work of Christmas gifts too? Perhaps some creative thinking is required.

This time of year is filled with Christmas Parties and get-togethers almost to the point that there isn’t much time for anything else, especially if you are working. However, a few strategically planned craft times can still be managed. For instance, if I really wanted to, I could’ve worked on making presents before our own Christmas Party on Saturday, but felt more like trying to figure out how the hell to use my new phone. Or Sunday after church I could’ve used the time to work on presents, but instead spent it trying to figure out how the hell to use my new phone. I hate getting a new cell phone, especially since my previous one was so perfect for me but was, well, showing signs it was on its way out after four years of continuous use. Let’s just say after following the instructions listed on the website for changing folder names and whatnots on my memory card, I decided to ignore them all and do it how I was originally going to do it. Sure enough, it worked. I suppose that is my fault for trying to follow directions for once in my life.

Anyway, part of the craziness of Christmas is the last-minute crafter’s ability to whip out presents like magic. Oh, sure, we could have been planning and making stuff all year long, but what fun would that be? Where is the challenge? For as long as I can remember I’ve sworn that I’ll start making stuff sooner for the following year, but it never happens. Alas, it looks like carving out niche times to sew will need to be during what I’d normally use as after dinner down time, also known as television zombie mode. Considering most broadcast shows are on hiatus until after the new year, however, is perfect for using that time for craft projects instead. With any luck, I’ll be halfway done with my Christmas presents by Christmas.

Cell Phones

Where would we be without cell phones? They are so integrated into the fabric of our lives, and help us keep in touch with friends and family, and the best part is you don’t even have to talk to them!

I remember the day my partner said he signed us up for cell service and got a couple of phones. They were simple, very small, and had monochromatic screens when flipped open. Their purpose? Phone calls. The whole texting thing I didn’t get at the time, and really, the reason for getting the phones was more for emergency use than anything else, like, say, if the car broke down or we weren’t home and people needed to get in touch with us.

My sister, on the other hand, is an avid texter, and could T9 like nobodies business. I preferred to just talk, as it seemed faster to me… until four years later when we both got phones with full QWERTY keyboards. I instantly became a textaholic. My logic behind texting rather than calling was more out of convenience for the receiver. If I call and they are busy, either they won’t answer or I will interrupt them at an inopportune time. But if I just text them and let them respond at their earliest convenience, I don’t have to worry about that. And yes, my brain goes through a hundred different scenarios in a fraction of a second as I decide whether to call or text someone. I don’t know exactly where this comes from, but I have a tendency to overanalyze things that have a near zero chance of actually happening.

These full sized QWERTY keyboard toting cell phones, with built-in 2 megapixel camera and MicroSD card slot to also act as an MP3 and media player, with more features than I’ve ever used were the LG enVs. Mine is orange, and while it is nearing three years old, which, for a cell phone makes it ancient, I don’t want to get a new one. My partner had to get a new phone because it cost less to get the enV3 than replacing the battery since his would not keep a charge for more than a couple hours. Of course, when we got these phones, we signed up for an unlimited text and web plan, since we had web capable phones that could actually surf the internet, and we anticipated texting more with phones more conducive to such. However, a few months later, we switched back to a family plan with unlimited texting because, seriously, the internet browsing was a little sketchy. That, and really, we couldn’t justify spending an extra fifty dollars a month for internet access on our phone, when we didn’t even pay that much for high-speed internet at home.

So, my phone became a texting machine, which, when I realized there was a notepad and calendar on it, also became my grocery list and event reminder machine, which in turn also became my cake order machine. I would be absolutely lost without my phone. How did this happen? We even got rid of our landline because we never used it as we were so attached to our cell phones. Okay, so we got rid of our landline because after two years of Qwest not being able to figure out why our line sounded like a very scratchy record of someone clawing a chalkboard with their fingernails in the middle of a windstorm while a convoy of semi trucks whirred by, even on a dial tone, we got tired of not being able to hear the person on the other end.

How did we, as a society, turn what once was a unitasker, into a multipurpose can’t-live-without-it machine? You can’t blame the manufacturers, because they were simply making what people were asking for. And what is the next step, brain implants with screens, speakers and microphones surgically attached to our eyes, ears and mouth so we don’t even have to physically carry a device? Okay, maybe that won’t be the next step, but it certainly isn’t too far off.

But, while people keep upgrading their phones, and mine has a tendency to randomly turn itself off, one of the arrow buttons on the front barely works, and the music player sometimes decides to start playing, and usually at inappropriate times, I am still using my first generation enV, because they have yet to make another one with the features I use most, in one of my favorite colors… orange. And yes, that is why I am holding out on getting a new one.