Trying to remember life before the internet age

I'm often amazed at how different life is now, technologically, than it was when I was a child. I'm aging myself when I admit that I remember the advent of cable television, vcr's, and mobile phones. Even computers were not all that common when I was in college, forget childhood. It was in college that I got my first computer. My dad bought it from a man he worked with, who was upgrading. It was a very, very rudimentary model, but for what I needed it for, which was word processing, it did just fine. That computer took me through college as well as law school. I bought a new computer after I got my first real job after law school, but didn't really learn about the internet, and didn't get it until about 10 years ago. Now, I can't imagine how in the world I would live without it.

I spend several hours each day on the internet. It's how I communicate with other attorneys, CPS workers, CASA, clients, you name it. It is invaluable in scheduling mediations. It's how I keep in touch with friends and family. It's how I get my news. It's where I find recipes, and tv listings, and answers to anything I might ever want to know.

And one of the most amazing things about the internet? It's how I have made some really good friends, many of whom I have never met in person, and some that I never will. I first "met" one group of these friends a little more than six years ago, while pregnant with Clayton. I had joined a group on IVillage of other ladies who were pregnant with babies due in the same month as I was. Together, we shared daily emails about our pregnancies, subsequent births, and lives of our children. We have exchanged presents over the years, for our children's birthdays and for our Christmases. We have mourned over deaths, rejoiced over births, gotten into arguments and made up. We have shared each other's lives in meaningful ways, although most of us have never even met in person.

I am so excited to be able to go to Washington D.C. next month. I am mostly excited because Aaron is so excited, but I am also very excited because while there, I'm going to get the chance to meet, in person, two of the wonderful ladies in that group I just mentioned, Amy and Shannon. Two ladies with whom I have shared many thoughts, many joys, and many hurts. Watch out ladies, because here I come!