We’ve come a long way baby

This morning I got up, took the kids to school, and then came home to check my email.

After my email I read the newspaper…online.

Then I checked out the classifieds to see if there were any jobs out there screaming my name.

I found an interesting job at the University of Iowa so I got on to their website to submit an application.

While I was searching the net and applying for jobs I was also chatting with my best girlfriends on AIM. Just catching up on how their night was last night and what was in store for the day.

Eventually I stepped away from my laptop to shower and go in to the office.

In the office I got right to work reviewing the contracts that were waiting for me in my inbox. I opened them in Word and redlined them with my mouse before sending them back to coworkers.

During my break I logged on to Facebook to check up on old high school friends. And, I admit it, play a few games.

Then I logged on to Twitter to see if there was any news on Anissa’s condition. And I prayed with other bloggers for Anissa to overcome this stroke.

Over lunch I gobbled down a pizza sub while surfing the major news sites…ok, and the gossip sites.

Then I used dexonline.com to find the address and phone number of Caleb’s eye doctor so I could enter them in to my Blackberry.

Later as I reviewed a contract that referred to currency exchange, I googled the latest currency rate between USD and Euros.

Before I left to take the kids to their student-led conferences I checked several items off of my online to-do list.

At the kids’ conferences their teachers gave me a paper that included the URL to several websites the kids could go to for homework help. And the teacher gave me a computer print out of the kids’ grades including the teacher’s comments. Caleb’s teacher also talked to me about a new program they are offering in the morning to help kids who are struggling with reading. They will go in the computer lab before school and read books on the computer.

When I got home I queued up the episode of Private Practice I missed three weeks ago. My DVR was screwy that week so I need to watch the episode online.

But before I watched the show I did an internet search for connections between reading disabilities and cleft lip and palate. I read a few educational white papers from universities all over the world. I want to make sure I’ve done some homework before Caleb’s next plastic surgery appointment to see if there is any light his doctor can shed on these reading problems.

And now I’m blogging so I can keep a connection with my bloggy friends all over the country and even foreign places I’ve never been and may never be.

Can somebody please tell me how we survived without the internet? I mean I shudder to think about actually…

…writing letters to friends to find out what’s going on a week after it happend
…reading the newspaper on actual paper
…applying for a job by mailing my resume through snail mail (which was just plain mail back then)
…calling my best girlfriends on the telephone
…reviewing hardcopy contracts that had to be overnighted to me via courier and which I would have to redline with an actual red pen
…guess what old high school friends were doing
…or having to use actual playing cards to play a game of solitaire
…going to a break room to catch a snippet of CNN hoping the news I want to see is on during that time
…running a newsstand to get a copy of the latest people to find out the latest on Michael Jackson or Paris Hilton or Miley Cyrus
…opening the actual phonebook to find a number and address
…not know the currency rate until the next day’s Wall Street Journal
…writing to-do list items on a notepad with a pen
…having to use flashcards for homework help
…and getting report cards with teacher comments in the teacher’s handwriting
…having to wonder what happened on a missed television episode
…having to rely on my doctor’s expertise only for questions about our health
…living without bloggy friends.