"I love technology, but not as much as you..."

Today I am thankful for technology. Not only has it brought me a realistic sounding piano at a reasonable price, weight and size (yep, still extremely excited about that), but it also brings my family closer to me even though I live so far away.

I love cell phones. When I first went to college, life was all about calling cards. I once went six weeks without talking to my parents. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that long, but I think it was more than a month and I definitely didn't recognize my mom's voice on the phone when she finally called me. But that never happens anymore. Thanks to my cell phone, I call my mom all the time. Sometimes every day. Sometimes three times a day. And it's all no more expensive than it would be if we lived next door to one another. Thanks to cell phones, over the past two days I have talked to every single member of my family. I especially love it when one of my brothers calls while I'm on the phone with the other one and they think it's cool to be the one for whom the other gets ignored. And I love it when I call my mom's phone and get my sister instead, or I'm trying to call my mom and have to go through three different phone numbers to find out that she really is unavailable. It's great to have so many ways to connect.

Technology lets Virginia's grandparents see her every single week, so that when she sees them in person they will already be familiar. Technology lets me play Scrabble with my Aunt in Utah and my friend in Atlanta. It lets me see pictures of my nieces and nephews who are all thousands of miles away. And it lets me follow my friends' lives even though we only get together in person once in a great while.

So even though it's nice sometimes to go "off the radar" and camp in the middle of the woods where there is no "signal," I am thankful for technology.