I remember when...

I remember when I was the nerd who had a computer sitting on my table and every body looked at me strange.  I was the only person in a restaurant, or the only person in an entire college classroom with a laptop.  Now, I'm sitting at a restaurant at the airport as I type this and almost every 2nd table has someone at the table with a laptop.  It's even more amazing to thing we're all connected.  Back then, it was just an expensive word processor.

I also remember when I was the only nerd who carried a mobile phone, and it was almost as big as the back pack I'm carrying today.  It wasn't really that big, but it was a big brick, bigger than the bricks you build a house with.  The battery pack, however, was a heavy bulky thing that required a bag and weighed probably 5 pounds. 

I was single then and I worked on a team where we took turns being on call for 24 hours.  I wasn't real fond of that phone.  However, it did come in handy one evening when a call saved me from a very boring date.  It was the one time I was thankful to be stuck handling a technical call outside of normal business hours.  Poor guy showed up for a date with me with a great big cowboy hat on and a big old buckle.  Remember I'm not from Texas, and didn't appreciate the Texas style back then.  And, to top it off, he was rather quiet.  Imagine me with someone quiet ... Can you imagine it?? 

See, the call was a good thing.