Ricky has caught up with technology

For years Ricky has refused a cell phone. Didn't want to be accessible, he said. Didn't want people to be able to get ahold of him wherever he went.

Well, that's all well and good unless it's your wife who needs to reach you!

The straw that finally broke the camel's back happened on Tuesday. Ricky came home and was running late to make it to his class downtown, so he asked me to drive him and I agreed. I then thought we agreed that I'd pick him up on the corner of Jackson and Broadway when his class ended, at 8 pm.

Ricky, however, thought he was supposed to call me to come get him when class got out. His class ended up getting out 40 minutes late, and he couldn't find anyone with a cell phone nor did he have change for the pay phone (here's where I'm always right - had we agreed that he'd call me, I'd have given him my cell phone to use to call me, or made sure he had 50 cents for the pay phone).

Anyway, he decided to take the bus home, all while I was sitting at the corner of Jackson and Broadway waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Until at 10:30 - yes, 2.5 hours after his class was supposed to be out - he called me and said "where are you?" He was at home, having been delivered there by the bus, and I was still sitting on the street corner waiting for him, visions of thugs and ambulances (ambuli?) and hospital beds dancing in my head, fueled by the sirens I was hearing from down the street.

Of course I was livid, and he was apologetic. When I got home I told him I was going out to get him a cell phone. He thought I was joking at first. When he realized I was serious he said simply "just get me a flip phone." Wow. The man who was so against a cell phone had finally seen the light!

And yes, I did get him a phone. He is now the proud owner of a Samsung Sync in blue with a ridiculously easy-to-remember phone number.