School After 50 - What Am I Doing Here?

Head is spinning. Hands are clammy. Heart speeding a mile a minute. Oh please don't let me start hyperventilating. Please!!

Breathe....breathe....you can do this. Don't let them see you sweat. How embarassing will that be?

I'm sitting in a chair. In a computer lab. Of a noted university. Surrounded by students young enough to be my children. Students who seem to be very confident. And most importantly, know what they're doing. Me? Not so much.

First clue I will not do so well: the computers are Apples. I'm a PC.

The course is only 6 weeks long. How the heck am I going to concentrate on learning the curriculum when I don't even know how to use the darn computer?

Why am I doing this to myself? Why did I think I could take college courses at my age? What was I thinking?

Not sure how this will end up. Will I have all my hair at the end of all this? Will my family be visiting me in the local mental health facility? Or god willing, will I be glad that I took the plunge and took a chance at being a middle-aged college student?

Stay tuned....I'll let you know how it all works out in 6 weeks.........

Cell Phone Update! - The winner: Android Galaxy Note

So I did it...I took the plunge!

Got a new phone. The Samsung Galaxy Note! No, I didn't wait for the new one which was just released this week. I saved a bit of money by buying the "old" model. Saved even more because we bought the Note along with another Galaxy phone for hubby.

So far I'm loving it! What a phone! Well, actually it's probably a tablet with a phone. It has a big beautiful screen that gives me clear, crisp images. It comes with a stylus pen so I can actually write on the screen as if I'm writing on a notepad. (Great for my blogging!)

I think the biggest and the best difference between this and my previous smartphone is the speed! i am amazed! i was so used to how slow my old phone was and the constant freezing of the screen, that it's going to take some getting used to not having to put up with that.

I'm making progress in personalizing it. Got the contacts in. Filled in my calendar. Downloaded some apps. Synced my email accounts. Now I have to work on the ringtones.

I just can't put it down. I'm lovin' it!

Cell Phone Revolution

Do you remember the days before cell phones? I sure do. It’s hard to fathom how we lived without them.

I recall wishing we had a portable phone back in my childhood. (Heck, I wanted one of those newfangled fancy ones with push buttons that wasn't permanently attached to a wall. Didn’t want much eh?) Dad would be working his one-man landscaping business and mom would be getting dinner on the table. She’d suddenly realize we were out of something. We’d get these crazy science fiction thoughts about how to get word to dad. It would have made life so much easier if we could have teleported a message to our hard working father. (“Hey Dad! Mom says we need milk….NOW!)

Or how about when we took long car trips and it decided to break down (which always seems to happen in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, right)? How did we call AAA to come save us? By walking miles to find a pay phone, praying it wasn’t broken and that we had a dime left to put in it.

           Photo Credit:  Dean Terry's Photostream (Flickr)

Where was that cell phone then, huh? It was only in the land of make believe. James Bond had a cool phone in his car, didn’t he? And what about Maxwell Smart? It was in his shoe!