What's the matter with kids today?

My daughter has been asked to Homecoming twice already.

Well, kind of.

One boy kept texting her and she finally texted back (and I really can't believe I'm using the verbs "texted" and "texting" in a blog post) "Why do you keep telling me this stuff?" to which he replied "Because you're my BFF" and then "And because you're going to Homecoming with me."

(I remind you that I am not a fluent in teen texting and have probably spelled words correctly that were meant to be misspelled. My apologies.)

She texted back that she was NOT going to Homecoming with him.

THEN she told me about the boy who she doesn't really know but she does know his sister and she's not even Facebook friends with him but, nevertheless, he sent her an email through Facebook that said "I know we don't know each other all that well but you seem like a really nice girl and I was wondering if you want to go to Homecoming with me."

WTF!

(Warning: Old Person rant ahead)

All this technology is keeping our kids from learning how to socialize. These boys don't really like my daughter, she's just one more girl who might say yes. ( In fact, I told her to tell Facebook Boy "Um, I don't know what list I'm on but please take me off it.") They don't have to care about someone - or care about getting to know someone - enough to risk personal embarrassment, they can just send out mass emails and see who responds first! And it's not any better for my daughter. She was more polite to Facebook Book than I would have been, but still....she's not learning how to let a boy down gently while watching his heart break. These kids aren't acquiring any skills. They might as well match themselves up by what they're wearing. "Cute brunette with red dress seeks Freshman boy who will coordinate colors for Homecoming. Powder blue need not respond."

All I want is a little QWERTY keyboard

I admit: I had no idea I would actually use the texting capability of my phone. That is why, when I bought my new phone in February, I put 0 emphasis on a QWERTY keyboard and a lot of emphasis on a flip phone (because I have an aversion to constantly hitting the unlock key and especially to butt/purse dialing. I am still scarred by the time my husband came home and played me the message from when my cell accidentally called his while my then-three-year old daughter and I were in the car and the message was 2 1/2 minutes of us singing The Wheels on the Bus at the top of our lungs).

But...the GPS/Internet plan I wanted for my pretty new phone in February also came with 200 texts per month which I started using, because my daughter was carpooling to Plymouth twice a week and she would text me when it was time for me to pick her up or when she was running late and it actually came in quite handy that I could reply to her.

So I got in the habit of texting.

And people started texting me more.

And then I started Tweeting - which can also be sent to your phone as texts.

And then Daughter turned 14 and we upgraded her Text Message Plan as her gift and realized a month later that it's really not enough and we upgraded again (and then ended up upgrading AGAIN) and got unlimited texting for me as well and more and more people started texting me, which I like, but it takes me forever to respond so I started to check into getting a new phone (even though I still love my pretty red phone) with a QWERTY keyboard and...

ATT&T you have totally let me down.

I've called. I've visited your store (more than once). Your lame-ass sales guy (who was wearing TOO much cologne, btw) tried convincing me that I REALLY need an iPhone and when I told him that I've done my research and I really don't WANT an iPhone he (and every other salesperson) started ignoring me and told me I could "look around if I wanted" and then when I told them I know I'm not eligible for a free upgrade but maybe we could working something out as I've upgraded my plan three times in the last two months I was told "No. You're not eligible. Go home."

So now I'm home. But as you can see I'm still a little pissy. And I still don't have a QWERTY keyboard.