The i-Phone Saga and How I Stumbled into the 21st Century

They launched it...





People stood in line for it...




People camped out for it...



Now I have it, too.


Now, I have to master it! A young man at the Apple Store spent about thirty minutes showing me the basics of using the multiple features of the i-Phone. Then he sent me off on my own. Now I have a whole new thing to learn.

Three years ago, I didn't know the first thing about the internet. I didn't even know what Google was. I felt like I was becoming a dinosaur, out of touch. A lot of my friends were communicating by e-mail and I was missing out on things. At the time, we had a ten-year old computer with a dial-up connection... you know, the one that made the screeching and buzzing sounds. My husband insisted we didn't need a new computer. He had a new computer in his home office, but I couldn't use it as it belongs to his employer and has all kinds of security codes.

Over a couple of months, I did my research and began saving up my money. I decided to get a little laptop, a MacBook. I found out I had to go an hour up to Cincinnati to the Apple Store to get one. So, I drove up and got my MacBook. I was afraid of it at first. I brought it home, set in on my dining room table and plugged it in. I had no idea how to make it do anything. I signed up for some classes at the Apple Store, and learned the basics.

Soon I realized I needed an internet connection. My husband and I argued about it for weeks. He insisted we could splice my connection in with his company connection so we wouldn't have to set up a new connection for me. It turned out we couldn't do that. I tried the phone company, but it somehow interfered with the connection he already had. I finally decided we needed a cable connection. However, our house was not yet connected to cable. I couldn't convince him we needed a cable connection so, dare I say, I took matters into my own hands.

One week when he was out of town I called the cable company. The next morning, a man was out front digging in our yard. My next door neighbor called, asking me if I knew what he was doing. "Yes!" I told her, we are getting cable! Then another guy had to come out to set up my internet connection.

I was on the web! I began discovering a whole new world! Of course, at the time I had no idea of what a "blog" was. It didn't take me long to find them, though. I began reading blogs, linking to more blogs, and setting up bookmarks. I found my favorites and read them regularly. I didn't leave comments because I had no idea how to do it. But I read the comments that others were making. After a few months of lurking, I took it upon myself to learn how to set up a Blogger account and make comments. After a few more months of this, I decided to create a blog of my own. And the rest is history.

Sometimes I can't believe how much I have learned over these past two years. I read my favorite blogs every day, and have made contact with some lovely people. It's amazing... I can communicate with people all over the world from my own house. Now, with the i-Phone I can do even more. I can take it with me in my pocket and watch movies, listen to music, get e-mails, and read blogs. When I was a kid, the 21st century seemed a million years away... now, I feel like a part of it!

But, first, I have to master this i-Phone. Here I go again... wish me luck!