Cross Country Living

Living cross country from the rest of your family is nothing today compared to 30 years ago, but it still can feel like a long way at certain times: holidays, celebrations, health scares, crises, birthdays, milestones, quiet mornings of catching up on the yoga mats. And surgeries....


I'm fortunate that my parents are in a place where they have lots of family and friends, so there will be no lack of care for my mom while she recovers from shoulder surgery. I get updates from Dad, and I talk to her daily, but I miss the reassurance of seeing her with my own eyes and knowing all is OK. 


But even with the distance, it's amazing the tools we have at our fingertips that my parents did not have when they were my age, or even 20 years ago when I was in Germany for 18 months and they were in Minnesota. I remember when calling long distance was a huge deal because the cost was so astronomical. It was a luxury reserved for holidays and emergiencies. Now it's nothing--literally--to call anywhere when calling from one cell phone to another. And even if we use the old fashioned land lines, it's just pennies a minute to talk and hardly makes a dent in the pocket book.

My Skype ID Photo

Then there is the greatest gadget/app of all! SKYPE!!! And that's free, too! We just hop on the internet, call through Skype, and we can see live video of the person on the other end. I can talk to my parents in Minnesota, or my brother in England (still working on my brother in North Dakota to get with it) and it's like were sitting in the same room, feet away instead of thousands of miles. This technology used to cost tens of thousands of dollars, and now it's free! (Obviously I am still amazed at the wonder that is Skype.)


Even working with my clients across state lines has proven fairly simple and low cost. I have a great program that allows me to access their computers when needed and take care of business. I think a couple of my clients have forgotten that I'm not in the same state because one of them keeps asking me if I'm going to be able to make it to meetings at his office. I'll take that as a good sign that the distance isn't noticable when doing my job. 


When it comes down to it, I can get from California to Minnesota in a matter of hours if needed. And though I miss out on a lot of the day to day things with family and friends, I hear from others who live away from their extended families that the time together will be even sweeter because it won't be taken for granted any more. (My uncle Paul can attest to this...) I think there could be some truth to that, and I am looking forward to my visits back to Minnesota. 


Tomorrow, Mom is able to take a shower, and then she says we can Skype again. So I'll get to see with my own eyes via webcam that she really is doing OK, especially now that Mom and Dad have figured out to tilt the computer screen so we can see more than just the tops of their heads (love you, Mom and Dad!).