A couple of years ago I thought it would be a good idea to
get my son an IPad - for purely therapeutic reasons of course. He is autistic
and playing games on it is one way he can spend some time without me riding his
back. The purchase had nothing to do with the fact that I can now play jewels
with friends with my sister 1,000 miles away. Nothing at all.
I’m sure some of
you are aware that you can use the camera on the iPad to take a good look at
how you might look to others. We recently figured out how to use the Facetime
app to talk to family and friends. This is a terrific way to feel connected to
people we miss. It is also a fine way to check them out and yourself out while
chatting, which often proves to be downright distracting.
Once my sister –
and I’ll take this opportunity to let you all know she is my ‘older’ sister –
found out how to do this she began calling me up on Facetime nearly every
morning. I have to admit sometimes I’m not prepared. My hair is dirty or pulled
back and I’m usually wearing a giant t-shirt with pajama pants and I likely
have toast crumbs down the front of it all. She’s usually wearing some type of
black tunic with her own hair as messy as mine. Once she realized she could get
a good look at herself on the screen she was smitten.
“Do you like my
hair?” she asked. “It’s falling out because of my thyroid but how do you like
the purple streak? It’s cool huh? Oh my God, look at my chins.”
I didn’t respond
right away because I was too busy looking at my own double/triple chins. After
years of working at a newspaper though, I know enough to tilt my head slightly forward
and downward, which makes anyone look much thinner in the face. I have not
shown this magic trick to my sister however. I prefer she keeps thinking my
face is thinner than hers.
“Nah,” I finally
said while eyeballing my own little thumbnail face in the upper right hand
corner of the screen. “You look great. I look like a slob.”
“No,” she said.
“You’ve got good hair.”
“Not anymore,” I
said. “I’ve got nice hands though.”
We went on like
this for several minutes never really getting down to the matters we meant to
discuss such as our lack of understanding of radio talk show hosts or how much
I miss being able to afford a pedicure because I can no longer comfortably
reach my own toes. We were so mesmerized
by our own images that we couldn’t carry on an intelligent conversation. Once
we checked out each other’s pajamas and I showed her how long the hair had
grown on my legs over the winter, we decided it was time to hang up and put
real clothes on for the day.
I have to say
though that Facetime has been a great way to stay connected to each other. Our banal
conversations through technology are pretty much the same as what we’d talk
about if I were sitting on her sofa in Cincinnati. Only we’d probably share
some peanut M&M’s while we talked about our saggy chins and water weight
gain. I admit some aspects of technology are pretty awesome. Facetime helps me
love my big sister all the more. She’s going to be really, really mad that I
called her my “big” sister.
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