Another one joins the flock (III)

[Mike85]

It's amazing how little things impact you.

W and OM took off for the infamous week-long camping trip (the one that W had tried getting me to let our kids go on also) after dropping off the kids. Our youngest (age 3) was covered in mud from playing with W's puppy outside and needed a bath. After I bathed the kid, he decided to dress himself, including donning an old fraternity hat. Looked danged cute, so I snapped a camera phone pic and sent it to W.

It bounced - "Invalid address"

I tried again, same result.

Tried texting W to tip her off about the apparent glitch. It bounced. "Invalid address"

??????

I called her to tell her that the pic and texting was bouncing, and got her voicemail.

I'm a novice to the whole cell phone tech scene, so I figured that her "inbox" was full or something. Then a friend suggested that maybe she was having stuff from me blocked. That made no sense to me, especially after the great bonding weekend we had just had, but I thought that maybe OM got W to do it b/c he was unhappy with how much W and I communicate and had bonded. Hell, for all I knew, he had blamed his bender that past weekend on feeling threatened by me.

Yep, my mind started playing games with me after my friend's suggestion. I got into a slight funk. I know, I know. Stupid.

I should have known better. Even if my friend was right, I shouldn't have let it get to me and instead trusted in the rapport that W and I had built to this point.

Sure enough, W called me today to respond to my voicemail. She had been busy getting ready for her trip and having fun and finally remembered to call back. Turns out that all the text messages and pics I and her mom sent to her managed to drive our cell phone account to over $300 (W didn't realize that of the three phones on our account, only HER phone had the free texting), so she had it turned off on my phone and MIL's phone. She had meant to tell me on Friday, but well, that was when the hysterical emotional "fun" of last weekend hit.

I told her, jokingly, that I though she was having me blocked. She laughed and said that, no, if I wanted to turn texting back on, she could do it, but that I'd have to be willing to pay for it... and besides, she'd rather that I just... call and TALK to her.

Wow. That little offhand statement made me realize what an idiot I was for letting a friend's comment get me into an unwarranted funk, but it also made me feel SO much better overall. I'd been using texting as a way to communicate with W in a "distancing" way. Turns out that she'd rather actually have a conversation involving our actual voices. No abbreviations, no emoticons, just us.

I may seem like I've got it together with the DB stuff sometimes, but I'm just as prone to the mental paranoia and funks as the next newbie. I've still got a ways to go.

At least this episode had an "up" gist to it...