Free Cell

DSC_0881, originally uploaded by slowernet.

It’s been a bad year for me and cell phones. Before last Autumn, I’d managed to hold on to the same cell phone since approximately 1997. It’s distinctive analog ring was a jb signature that would set my dog bounding across the dog park in search of me after it’s first two distinctive tones. (She actually found it for me a couple of times, and this is nothing short of amazing because while she is cute as a button, she’s um, not highly intelligent.)

Anyway, I loved my lil’ old skool Nokia and didn’t need to be bothered with texting, much less (and God forbid!) email on my phone. I lost my baby in a taxi last October, in the midst of the chaos of installing Pin-Up Show over above Fanelli.

Ollie, my dog, the not so smart one, chomped on the replacement phone the day I got it. (And I only got it after really and truly endless tedium and contention with dozens of inept Cingular CSRs who forced me into changing from AT&T in order to get a replacement phone.) The new phone was a flip phone with a camera that I never used and I didn’t like it anywhow. The flip thing was annoying and the keys were hard to press and I missed my battered yet reliable little Nokia.

I didn’t have to suffer long though. A few months later, during the chaos of installing Meditations in an Emergency at the gallery, a junkie swiped my phone off the front table. (I am steps from the the Bowery after all.) I caught him red-handed, but he slipped the (basically worthless) phone down his pants, and as you can imagine, I was disinclined to go hunting for it.

I sold my soul to Cingular for another free replacement phone. I was back to a little brick sized Nokia. Simple, black, cheap but completely functional and most importantly, boasting the silly imitation old-fashion brrrrrrrrrrrring! ringtone that I’d coveted for a while. (I am not a download ringtones kind of girl. I’m more technically savvy than a lot of people, but I really haven’t spent any time at all figuring out how to coordinate my laptop and my phone, or the internet and my phone. The last thing I need is more internet in my life.)

In late September, I left the phone in a cab. I wasn’t installing a show, and I wasn’t even particularly stressed out. I was just distracted and poof, it was gone. I hoped some benevolent soul would return it to me,but no. It’s gone, and has stayed gone. My initial frenzy to replace it was quieted by the prospect of paying cash money for a replacement. Right now I have a small shoebox full of old cells offered to me by friends as potential replacements. (None of them work.)

I was anxious to address the situation first, but then I noticed something: I was a lot calmer without my cell phone. Walking around downtown NYC without a cellphone attached to my ear opened up a whole new nearly-forgotten richness of experience. I noticed more: the buildings, what people were wearing, how traffic flowed, what was in shop windows. Myself.

There was one particular day that stands out: I was going from the gallery to meet a friend at the Joe on Waverly Place. I was anxious about being out of touch for a few hours, but once I was a block away the anxiety faded. The walk over, which took about 20 minues, was completely restorative. I met my friend, who enjoyed the rare occurance of my complete undivided attention, and I enjoyed it too. And the best part of all of it was realizing: almost anything can wait for at least an hour. I don’t need to be in constant contact. The world did not come crashing down.

Now don’t get me wrong. Not having a cell phone kind of sucks. Pay phones rarely work, and are often kind of crusty and gross. I go upstate to visit my granny a lot, and long drives on the Taconic without a cell give me a bit of anxiety. (My ‘87 Volvo wagon is awesome, but awfully tempermental.) I’m getting ready to replace it. (Got a nice Cingular compatible phone for me? I’m all ears.) But not having it has been illuminating, on lots of levels.

This post is getting long and I have other things to talk about and tend to today, so I’ll post more on the subject tomorrow.