it still feels unusual to use my cellphone outside of chapel hill proper. the kind of unusual one might feel when unexpectedly discovering an open wireless signal at a small airport. so like an obnoxious, prototypical business traveler, i chatted on the phone with my brother while i waited at the gate.

when i visited washington dc over fall break, i left my cellphone at home. on purpose. irrationally and miserly fearing the threat of exhorbitant roaming charges. i had not realized till then how my social coagulating behavior has become so entirely facilitated by the cellphone. thus i was kinda miserable in dc, unable to contact people, unable to be reached, unable to partake in spontaneous decentralized gathering.

i used to think that i’d no longer have private moments if i got a cellphone. i’d no longer be able to be out of reach, a feeling i sometimes i revel in. thankfully calling a cellphone involves a certain social risk, burdening the caller and interrupting the receiver with concurrent communicative demands that are greater, say, than the asynchrony of email. or blogging. or sending letters.

i got an actual letter in the mail today. my name and address handwritten on the front, the return address unfamiliar. it stopped me in my tracks. who sends letters anymore? besides my grandmother? it was an invitation.