Monday, May 16, 2011

what the skype?!

so it has recently come to my attention that i am getting old. yep, i creak and pop in the morning, i have to take a pill at breakfast along with my multi-vitamin, i say things to my youth at the church like: "because i said so" and "because i'm the adult and you're the kid."
BUT in the midst of all these things i thought i was still hip. i thought my references were cool. i thought my clothes were "in". and i thought that i looked like i was still in college...early college. well, apparently, i'm wrong. here's how i knew i was delusional...
a couple of weeks ago i was with a bunch of old people at a conference(like 30-40 somethings. remember, two weeks ago i was still delusional). as the conference ended we were encouraged to stay in touch with the people we've met so that we could continue to learn from each other. since this is a national event the suggestion was made that we SKYPE. what?! what's a skype? i'd heard of it, i knew some people did it, i thought it may be trendy...but i don't like to always buy into trends?! am i left out?! does the whole world skype without me?! probably not, but like i was even going to ask the questions to find out!
then it was in my face: i have a vocational mentor who lives in texas. she was at this conference as well. she is over 40 with 2 children. she is like a "grown-up" version of me. while we were actually in the same town we decided to go to lunch. so, while we were sitting, scheduling meetings with one another on our iphones, and browsing the nearest ice cream shop using the places app. she says "so about skype, i don't know how to use it. do you do that?" i freaked out inside. jeenkies, she thought i should know! i hesitated to reply..."i've heard of it..."
what?! i'm like a 40 something with 2 kids! i'm out of the loop! i'm not a technical super wizard! crap. this snuck up on me. attacked me in the night. stupid skype.
it was at this point that we designed a covert operation to learn about skype. i mean then we will at least be in the know. she is going to trick her kids into teaching her. i say i'll google it then right away delete my browsing history. and we both wonder how we got to this point. how could we be iphone talking trend setters who don't know about skype and have to learn in underground classrooms?! wow.
now i know my computer doesn't have a webcam, it's about 25 lbs., and i bought it in college. but, i thought it was still a pretty cool computer. now i know it can't webinar very well (that whole webcam thing is apparently super functional)and it can't download songs with great ease (but like i have plans after 8 pm), and of course there is the skype debacle. however, it can buy a groupon, it can facebook, it can load usa today, and it can blog. i thought that was enough. gosh.
here's to google...thank you for keeping me current. here's to princeton...thank you for pointing out my oversight. here's to iphone...thank you for facetime (no downloads needed) and here's to skype...lame.