Did you get my text?

So here's one of my favorite things.  I don't receive these every day, but a good day involves a flurry of text messages from my friend Megan.  You've met her before, but here's one more picture of us this summer.

Technology is a wonderful thing if you want to keep in touch with people who live far away.  We can Skype, send pictures, text.  Megan's ability to use her iTouch means our communication doesn't have to rely on anyone else - imagine how intriguing that kind of independence feels to someone who is largely dependent on other people most of the time?

The only problem is that I can't DECODE any of them.  Here's what our text conversation looks like:

Sorry - the picture isn't clear but I can't take a screen shot because after you drop your phone in the (clean) toilet some things don't work so well any longer.

I can usually at least determine if something big is happening because the texts start REALLY early in the morning - I'm laughing when I type this knowing that Megan's mom Janie is always mortified that she will wake me.  No worries Janie, the volume no longer works on my phone either (again, due to the Toilet Incident of 2011) so we are cool.  If I don't answer, she is not discouraged.  Megan just keeps sending until she decides something else needs to be done. I try to answer as soon as I can.  When she's got a lot going on, sometimes it looks like less of a conversation and more of a delightful alphabetic explosion.

The best part is that I get to make up what she's saying so I like to imagine that she's telling me she misses me as much as I miss her and that she's wishing we were back at the beach eating ice cream sandwiches. Wouldn't it be crushing if she was really just trying to tell me she needs some space? I wouldn't expect anyone to sit and read her my texts, so I mix it up and respond with some texts about what I'm doing, pictures of where I'm going, photos or videos of things I think will make her laugh. She gets it too - when I send her a picture of my bed at night she stops texting.  I heard she laughed her head off at the picture of Kenny in an afro wig that I sent her.

I was lucky this afternoon because Megan was home and had lots of time to text. That she chooses to communicate with me at all absolutely thrills me. I was thinking that it's a good thing - to get a little electronic notification that you are on someone's mind.  So that's what I'm wishing for you today - that you hear from someone whose texts make you smile.

L