Friday, October 2, 2009

Welcome Back To The Cocktail Party!

Welcome back to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it.

I'd like to introduce Liz in Virginia from the blog 21st Century Housewife. I know you'll enjoy her blog as much as I do.





GLAD YOU
ASKED!

Liz in
Virginia


Mom of three, wife of
one, lover of books,
making it up as I go
along -- and not afraid to
tell you what I think.

Deal or Steal?



This is a a little self-portrait I dashed off right after I opened our first "texting-activated" wireless phone bill. We had this cool plan where the first fifteen texts per month are free! After that, each text you send or receive only costs fifteen cents! Doesn't that sound great?! Guess how many texts my son sent or received in that first month? The grand total was 1762. Texts. In a month.

Here is a typical text "conversation" from those early days:[Do I know this because I took his phone and read his messages? Yes!]

Her: What's that girl's name in that song?

Him: Delilah

Her: I love that song

Him: U R a dork.

Her: No U R

Him: no U R

Her: UR cuz you are lame.

Him: I am not lame b/c I am awesome.

Her: No you're not.

Him: Yep

Her: Gotta go

Him: Bye

Her: Bye

Him: Dork

Her: Dork

So here's my analysis of this interaction:

1. I think this counts as some sort of flirtatious courtship ritual, but I'm not sure.
2. I love that Delilah song, too.
3. They are both dorks.

This exchange used up our "fifteen free texts" for the month. After this he could have sent her the complete lyrics to that Delilah song, and as long as they were contained in one text, that text would cost fifteen cents. Bargain! Or he could keep it simple: "Dork!" Fifteen cents, please. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways . . . ." Fifteen cents. "No, U R . . . ." Fifteen cents.

So now we have Free Unlimited Family Texting, which has really changed our lives and which is not actually free, but whatever. Here is a more recent self-portrait:


I call it "Self-Portrait with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome."

Image credits: Edvard Munch: "The Scream," 1893, The National Gallery, Oslo
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: "Portrait in Yellow (Annie Miller)," 1863, The Tate Gallery, London





Thank you Liz for being a guest on my blog.

The cocktail party will continue on Sunday with a new guest blogger. It's not too late to RSVP if you haven't already. You can send your submission to me at thisstopwilloughby@yahoo.com. I would appreciate it if you could send me your post in html format. If you are submitting a new post, create it on Blogger as you would any post. Save, but don't publish it. From there you can click "edit html" and copy and paste your blog into the body of an email. If you are submitting a previously published post, go into "edit" and follow the same instructions. This makes it much easier for me to display your blog post the way you have written it. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

12 comments:

ChristineM said...

Great post, Liz! My nieces had a sleepover and they played hide & seek in the back yard, texting eachother "UR cold", "Colder", "UR warm" to give hints...Ah, the youth of today!

L.B. said...

Hi Liz! Great story. We had the same thing, my wife and I, as we were paying more per month for our texts than the unlimited plan costs, so we switched. It's so easy to lose track of your texts, and then you think "Oh, this is just 5 cents" or in your case 15... but it all adds up. But I don't think I've ever sent 1,762 texts in one month!

Anyway, greetings and great post.

Tattoos and Teething Rings said...

Great post- I'm glad my daughter is only (almost) 9 and hasn't discovered texting yet!

Unknown said...

Wonderful post! Hi Liz! Glad to see you!

Lissaloo said...

lol, cute post, great to meet you Liz! :) I am so not ready for mine to be Teen's yet :)

Tracie said...

Great post Liz! All these teen stories are really giving me something to look forward to. At least I've been warned. I keep telling myself "Knowledge Is Power"

Holly Lefevre said...

That's hilarious...until it happens to you - I have heard the stories but my kids are still too young...the 8 year old keeps asking for a phone, but I don't think he knows about texting...or maybe he does????

Thanks Willoughby for hosting the cocktail hour.

Kathy said...

One of my son's text records for one month is...17,863! Of course, this was before the unlimited texting program! He spent an entire month and a half of summer vacation money paying off his bill! Nice story Liz! They don't realize that yes, one word is a text!

Donna-FFW said...

Really enjoying your cocktail party!! Love meeting new bloggers!

Joanna Jenkins said...

1,762 posts in one month! Amazing!
Terrific post, great cocktail party! Thanks Willoughby and Liz.
xo

Life Laugh Latte said...

Come on over and pick up an award we left for you at our blog! It's waiting for you baby! Holly at lifelaughlatte.blogspot.com

SPEAKING FROM THE CRIB said...

i loved liz's post, unfortunately, they sound eerily familiar to some of the ones i send - ouch - but i am a self-confessed dork

i do feature a blog of the week, but now you've given me inspiration to have my blog of the week be my guest post too!