A funny thing happened this morning. After packing himself (and his laundry) into my car across the street from campus, Eric wended his way up to the room Formerly Known As Eric's (see Prince, circa 1994) and settled in. Mere steps behind him was Allison, his younger sister who had something to share.
Minutes later, I heard Allison doing one of her many voices, while one delighted brother prodded her on, telling her she'd done a good thing. Turned out, she wanted to share with him a recent text she'd received in which a friend made a vicious slur against a group that needs no more enemies. Apparently, Allison put that friend in his place, possibly leaning on some salty (albeit, texted) language to make her point.
Eric could not have been prouder of his sister. And I think she walked a wee bit taller shortly after conveying that story.
Seems that, somewhere in their recent timelines, Eric and Allison have come to enjoy each other. And I could not be happier.
Duh.
...and, if I'm to be honest, I have to give some of the credit to Allison's recently acquired cell phone with unlimited texting. Two weeks ago, our dear friend, whose name also is Allison--you can connect the dots if you want to...we certainly did--invited Little Allison to join her cell phone's family plan. Now THIS is what I call "family planning!" The two went phone shopping that night and Little Al came home with some jazzy number, working the tiny keyboard like a stenographer on crack.
Ever since then, Allison and Eric have been in regular (and, I don't doubt, occasionally annoying) contact. This, apparently, is note passing for the 21st century, and I must admit that I sort of support it.
Via texting, Eric let Allison know that he'd been accepted into a hard-to-get-into Film and New Media program at UNL. She knew before I did. Via texting, she managed to annoy her big bro through most of an evening recently (although I think they both secretly enjoyed the digital prodding).
In the Holt household, all this texting is the equivalent of that weird, secret language that toddler twins share between themselves. And I could not be happier to be left out of that loop.
There's something infinitely valuable about a device that keeps siblings in touch with each other, while also (miraculously) keeping their parents at bay.
I, for one, am content to sit on the dock of this bay.
Oh, no. We've been cell phone hold-outs, but now you've given me yet another reason to take the plunge.
ReplyDeleteAh, don't be influenced by me. I'm a pathetic pseudo luddite...and our kids only have cell phones because they begged other adults to join their cellular families and agreed to take care of all payments!
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