keep in touch

growing up, a long distance call to pam in iloilo would have made my month. a call to my grandparents meant something really significant happened and this called for this important move.

a few years later, in high school, it became a trend between pam, paul, michael, joey j., and myself to communicate through snail mail. i remember the yellow pads we used to consume and how i would be saving money just so that i could mail it. funny how i sometimes end up in iloilo faster than my last letter. but for my cousins across the ocean, it meant about a month. by that time, a lot has already happened and you tend to forget what you wrote. kind of frustrating. adding to the fact that some letters mysteriously get returned or are lost.

in the beginning of the internet age, i did do a lot of emailing. but somehow they just don't get through to the other end. especially whenever my cousins were involved. hence, we were stuck to our average 2 phone calls a year. quite a challenge on our relationship.

things went on like this for a few years. it eventually spilled through other relationships that involved more effort in communicating. chat rooms were okay for a few months but useless if you're talking to someone on the opposite end of the earth. a lot of loooong naps in the afternoon and heavy eye bags.

i remember even using the buddy phone before. sort of the grandfather of the ym version used these days. problem was the voices were lagging and i often find my mic being borrowed so its often one sided.

i guess thats why i'm one of the few people who actually have the patience for long distance relationships since its been years of experience and practice for me.

now you have the cellphones. i still remember back in college how lesley used to be the only one in our class with a cellphone equipped with sms. i was still stuck on the star tac then. the only thing i would use it for was to call my dad that i was on my way home or when i was already back in iloilo. such fun!

i finally got into the sms and lesley was my text mate back then since no one else had one yet and the teachers thought we were just computing on the problems at hand. ha! they didn't have a clue! until about a year went by.

then they started charging it P1 per message. i still mourn the day it happened.

at present, there are just so many ways to keep in touch. phone, email, yms, cellphones... in different shapes, sizes and ring tones. it just blows my mind sometimes. a bit overwhelming at some points as well. at present, i have a friendster, multiply, myspace and facebook accounts. although i've abandoned my myspace account already. i can't get my passwords and user ids right na! but i can't get rid of them so easily 'coz along with them goes important contacts. so many choices and so many ways of getting through! even my dogs have friendster accounts (not my idea but i'm amazed at how many people also have accounts for their pets)! i think buknoy is more popular than me!

technology has really done so much to improve on relationships. be it relationships over great distances, relationships lost and found, new ones and relationships that is made better because of it. i can name some people i've gotten to be good friends with because of these mediums and wouldn't have it any other way.

i still need to buy a internet cam and mic (the things i do for you guys! as in!). for aumi most especially! miss you!

so as i end this blog, i casually sign in on my email accounts (again, in plural form). keep in touch!