Dear Family and Friends, We have Phones in England

A Crazy Life
Nov 4 · 3 min read

We also have medicine, running water and electricity. Despite not being in the United States, England is a small country that used to rule the world for hundreds of years before the US existed. (If history hasn’t been rewritten, you might know that some of the 13 colonies were ENGLISH colonies).

First, some lessons on geography, since coming to England, it has been pointed out to me by lots of British people that over 50% of Americans don’t have passports (this ranks third after guns and obesity). I’ve stopped explaining this by just stating “I HAVE ONE, I LIVE HERE!” — The United Kingdom is comprised of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland (that’s attached to Ireland), and some weird Islands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom They all have different flags and in cases different laws and in Wales they speak Welsh wish is a fascinating language with lots of yyyyy.

Moving from Indiana to New York City, was a leap but it was one that my family always knew was coming. I had talked about living in NYC since I was 7-years-old. The only priority coming out of university was a job in New York City and I had it 6 weeks before graduation! New York was drive-able from Indiana; if I remember it’s 12 hours but if you stop at my Grandma’s near Cleveland it makes it 9 hours.

My dad and I made this drive for Y2K New Years. I spent 6 months lobbying to be in Time Squares for the Millennium. I have no idea why he agreed to this insane plan. He even put extra gas in a can in the back of our minivan in case of shortages post 00:01 on 1 Jan 2000. As a 15-yr-old I was mortified by this but I now see it as very practical, given all the fear mongering by the men (of course it was men) forgot to design technology systems that went into the noughties. It was a fun trip. Besides negotiating the trip, I also was able to negotiate with the NYPD to let me out to use the bathrooms, multiple times. No wonder, I am in business development. It was an awesome trip. I think I still have some of the confetti that fell that night in my memory box.

So, the move to NYC was manageable. My area code changed but I was by then on gmail and Facebook. This was 2007 so Facebook was still only students not the mess that it is today. Occasionally, people came to visit. I mainly flew back to Indiana for holidays.

ENGLAND is a whole different kettle of fish.

My mom routinely is surprised we have actual medicine here. I have given up trying to explain the “communist” NHS.

I have had a few visits. My parents came 4.5 years ago and we went to Scotland because all American’s are obsessed by it (thanks you psycho, Mel Gibson). In the last 6 months, I have had two visits from aunts and uncles. Plus, my cousin lived in Kensington and lightly attended university for a term. And of course my kid sister who will jump on a plane at any prompting, has been a few times. She probably can understand the British sense of humour even better than I can. Hopefully, she’ll be living her in January! Interestingly, all of these visits found my email. I also have a US skype number to help clear up the confusion of dialling internationally. I’ve had this the whole time I’ve lived here. WhatsApp calling is acceptable as well.

However, it seems very few people know how to call me here or email me (it’s the same as my email in 2007). Facebook is regularly used to contact me but that’s just bloody lazy. Snapchat is fine as a joke but in serious — CALL ME, MAYBE?

A Crazy Life

Written by

Mental ill-health has defined my identity for years and now I am going to write about it.

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