I'm one of those rare people who still subscribe to the morning newspaper. In my case, it's the Sacramento Bee. I pick up the paper from my front porch every morning, shake off the icky bugs and toss the paper on the breakfast table. Today's headline was obscured due to the way the paper was rolled. Out of the corner of my eye, I read President Obama Turns to Facebook. My immediate reaction to this startling news was: Who gives a crap?
But then I realized how absurd. Of course, the headline actually read: President Obama Turns to The Pocketbook. But the fact that for one tiny moment, I actually thought Obama might post his State of the Union address via Facebook was a little bit disturbing. Tells me that some of us are a bit too wrapped up in social media, present company excluded.
Apart from participating in Active Rain now and then, I have precious little time for social media. I'm way too busy multi-tasking. I admit to sometimes answering emails while I talk on my cellphone. In fact, when I'm not out showing homes in Land Park or taking short sale listings in Sacramento, I work on 2 computers simultaneously throughout the day. I'm hooked to Bluetooth, but when I'm without cellphone coverage for any period of time, I don't know what to do with myself. No matter what I do, I rely on technology, part of which, whether I like it or not, involves social media.
I couldn't use my cellphone for 2 1/2 hours yesterday. It was agony. That's because I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room in the lower level of U.C. Davis, and there's no reception down there. My appointment was scheduled for 10 AM, but I didn't meet with the doctor until noon. I couldn't Tweet or look up the weather in Minneapolis and, let's face it, I'm awful at BrickBreaker.
Two hours with nothing to do seemed like an eternity. I flipped through a medical equipment catalog. Hmmm . . . so, how much do stethoscopes cost? You'd be amazed. Not that much, $60 to $200. And you can order them in different colors to match your mood. A patient put down a copy of More, that magazine for women over 40. I fit that demographic. Soon I was absorbed, reading about removal of facial hair. Did you know that laser removal is the number one recommended technique? It costs $400 a pop and requires six treatments.
When I finally got to meet with the doctor, he seemed harried. I bet he multitasks, too. He read through my chart and spoke very quickly. "So, you're ready for injections," he said. That was news to me. I asked him to explain himself. He looked at his computer monitor, scrunched his eyes, and scrolled through my health history.
"Tell you what," I replied, "Why don't you tell me why you think I am here." I let him study my file on the computer while I picked up a copy of Sacramento Magazine -- why doesn't U.C. Davis offer that magazine in the waiting room? Sacramento Magazine predicts that 2010 will be known as the year of pizza and hamburgers! Two of my favorite foods.
A half hour later, I was a free dog with a relatively clean bill of health and allowed to leave the premises. Back to cellphone land. Back to listening to voicemail messages about missing garage door openers, short sale approval extensions, loan doc delays, home inspection scheduling conflicts, and buyer's agents calling to see if they can show my active contingent short sales that state in MLS no more showings. The real world. A world where it's not totally nuts to think that President Obama might have a Facebook page.
Psst. He doesn't. I checked. But the White House does have a Facebook page.
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