15 minute phone calls

My interpretation of Einstein's theory of relativity: if this year's deployment were made up of units of 15 minute phone calls, the time would whizz by.

My boyfriend called me this morning, and woke me up...a completely welcomed wake-up call. I was so happy that he called that I wasted the first 30 seconds to a minute expressing that...then we had a few minutes gossiping back and forth (his drama and my drama), then I was filled with a sense of dreading...and yep, there it came: the recorded operator's voice, who warns that there are only 2 more minutes remaining in the phone call.

After that, it's almost as if Nurse Ratched herself came on the line to wrap it up...

You can continue talking until the phone disconnects, but we usually hang up before, just to have a sense of control. We then say our I love you's and goodbye's, and then hang up, as if it were our own choice to keep the call under 15 minutes.

For a few minutes we were in a reverie, and could have almost pretended that he was at work and I was going to see him tonight. We were transported into the normalcy of our lives before he left. But after that interruption, we are shocked back into reality. And we both realize how very far away he is.