Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Two Gals Video Chatting

Sometimes, a gal wants to see her close friend up front.  But when that close friend, in this case, the one, the only Cathy Hamilton, of BoomerGirl Diary, lives in the state of Kansas, a gal must make a technological leap.  The SJG hasn't attempted such a techno move since the eldest lived in Copenhagen.  "Do you Skype?" Cathy asks in an email.  "I think so," I reply.  Doesn't sound too promising, until the eldest, who no longer lives in Copenhagen, thank God, tells me we can Skype on Facebook.  "How?" I ask.  "How, how?"  "Oh, the Momma," he says, "It's so easy."  He demonstrates, in his usual fashion: rapid fire.  "You just go here and do this and then you're Skyping."  Well, how hard can that be?  Turns out, very.  First Cathy and the SJG have to search around and do some serious clicking and downloading and of course, on her end, it goes well.  How do I know?  We're on the phone at the time.  "Got it, ready, I'm going to Skype you."  "No, wait, I'm not ready."  "Why not?"  "I don't know.  The thingy isn't downloading."  "Why not?"  "Oh, wait, it's working!"  Now her face appears, and my face appears in the corner, a tiny box of SJG.  Immediately we start laughing and gawking, as if this is a historical event.  "I can't hear you," she says.  We're still on the phone.  Lame, I know.  "I can hear you."  "Hang up the phone."  I hang up.  "Can you hear me?" I ask.  "I can't hear you," she says.  "I can hear you."  She calls me.  "I can't hear you.  There must be something wrong on your end."  "Why on my end?"  "Because you can hear me but I can't hear you."  "Oh, so... it's my... oh wait.  I have to click on the little microphone."  I click.  "Can you hear me now?"  "I can!"  Another miracle.  "Hang up," Cathy says.  I hang up and we can still hear each other, and see each other.  We're both completely out of sync, however.  It's like watching a weird foreign movie.  All we can do is laugh and apologize for how we look in the morning.  "Thank God we still have phones," I say.  "Can you imagine only video chatting?"  "It would be awful," she says.  "Let's hang up and call each other back," I say.  "Great idea."

2 comments:

  1. I'm told people who don't live in New York or LA do, in fact, live in a foreign country. What did you expect? It would be easy? I thank god every day I have electricity and indoor plumbing living where I do!

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  2. I expected it to go exactly as it did, and I was not disappointed.

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