I spent a year during college living abroad. There were four phones to which we had access and they were in a bomb shelter in the building’s basement. If we wanted to make a call we needed to first stand in line… and wait and wait. When our turn finally came we would then hold our breath and hope the call went through. It was always hit or miss.  And… tf the call did go through (“IF” not “WHEN”) it was always questionable whether or not you would be able to actually understand the person to whom you were speaking. The connection was THAT BAD.

Perhaps that was why last night’s “tech encounter of a familiar kind” made me take pause.

Thomas emailed that he as going to be in Thailand next month. I asked if he was going there for business or pleasure and he wrote back-

Pleasure. We are in Bangkok now, driving southeast at the moment to the ocean…

So here I was assuming Thomas was here in the states when, in fact, he was already in Thailand. Usually such things don’t surprise me. For some reason this time it did. I wrote back-

Love this. You are in Bangkok. I’m in NJ. And we might as well be down the road. What a world.

To which Thomas replied-

Yeah, this is what makes tech cool and useful! Makes the world that much smaller.

It was only later that I discovered that while I was having a “conversation” with Thomas from New Jersey while he was in Thailand, Judie was “talking” to him from Texas as well.

Things have changed radically in the past few years, and we take many of our new  conveniences for granted. Every now and then however something makes you step back and say- “Hmmmmm.” Usually it is something small that comes a long to remind us how much things have changed. Last night was one of those times.