Cell Phone Cold Turkey

Do not believe those old drug-terror movies from the 70's: cold turkey isn't that bad. After my debit card debacle back in March, my cell phone bill missed an online payment, I conveniently ignored the ten million phone calls from my company, believing that they would just add whatever was missed to my bill the next time the automatic withdrawal came around. But I was wrong. Instead, my phone was cut off. And so, for the past week or 10 days, I have been cell-phone-less. Bear in mind that I was a JUNKIE. I talked incessantly, and could barely hold myself to 900 minutes a month. Get in the car, talk on the phone. Walk with Ella, talk on the phone. Anywhere, anytime. I was one of those awful people that I hate. Except that it's me, and therefore somehow justifiable. Poor Ella would beg me to get off the phone, "stop talking, Mommy!" It was awful. I fully admit it. (Isn't that one of the first steps, admitting a problem?)
But now, I can honestly report that I have seen the light: I was lame, addicted to not any kind of meaningful conversation, but fully hooked on talking. Now when we leave school at the end of the day I am not talking on the phone. But I am not necessarily having some sort of deep meaningful conversation with Ella either, usually she is just looking out the window and I am driving. But it is very, very peaceful And on our afternoon dog walks: she is still trailing behind, talking not to me but her new birthday doll, and I am just...walking. It has made everything so much calmer in our lives. Easier, more peaceful. I know that I will get it turned back on, I do feel safer driving and traveling with a cell phone, but hopefully I can resist it's siren call when I am in the car, heading home from school, or any other "dead time" that I filled with chattering. Ella doesn't need to fill that time either, we can just be. After all, sooner or later it will be me begging her to hang up and just be with me, not talking to her firends, not tuning out to some sort of incomprehensible music, but just being.