Voices From Abroad

Rob is off on a four-day trip.

I shouldn't whine, because we are coming off a vacation-like six days together, where we didn't fly anywhere, didn't do anything exotic, just spent time together in our home.  It was wonderful!  More on that later.

But, after having him here for six days, I feel like I'm rattling around this empty house, at loose ends.  To make it worse, I have MY days off this week, right in the middle of HIS trip.  So, I'm off, trying to fill my time so I won't miss him too much.  These kinds of days are the worst possible days for him to be flying out of the country.  He doesn't have an international calling plan.  So, when he flies to Canada or Mexico...we are stuck with texting apps like Google Talk or What's App.

Yesterday, I discovered that What's App's latest version has a voice function.  Not a voice-to-text function.  I hate those.  This is like using voice-mail.

Please don't mention Skype or Face-time.  Zoikes!  I've been leery of that technology since The Jetsons!  No, Thanks!  Rob has a pleasant image of me in his memory, and a few decent snapshots on his phone, let's not subject him to the scary, harsh-lighting, bad-angle close-up that Skype delivers.

So, I was thrilled with the voice capability.  It is better than talking on the phone in terms of clarity.  And there's something about knowing your voice is being recorded, that makes you take time with your words.  I was not even horribly chagrined to listen to my own recorded voice playing back to me, a prospect that is usually too awful to entertain.  But, to hear Rob's voice, crisply and clearly telling me that he loved me, wishing me sweet dreams, and saying goodnight, this was pure joy.  We only played around with it for a few minutes.  Though we were both so excited about it, he needed to get to bed.  His alarm was set for 2:30 a.m. for a painfully early show-time.

Tomorrow, he will be home.  I will hear his dear voice in person.  But, yesterday, when he was so far away that we could not even talk on the phone, I was so very grateful to this simple, free phone app, for making it more bearable.