It's my fourth day without a cell phone. We checked online, and the last call that was made from that phone was on Friday, January 27th, 2012, at four pm. I know where I was, and I went back to look there. Twice. Nope. It's gone.

So what is "it"? What did I lose? um. well, if you know me, I probably lost your phone number(s). It wasn't a smart phone, so I didn't lose much other data. No one would steal that phone. It was a ghetto, used motorola flip phone.

But my teenage kids did lose something when that phone disappeared. Like the ability to text me to change plans every other second. Yesterday, walking to the elementary school our youngest kid attends, with the dog on the leash, I noticed that I felt a little freer. I noticed that it was a beautiful day, that I had at least a half hour to spend in the sunshine, enjoying my dog's happily waving tail, and I also noticed, with a grin, that there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. I would not be summoned to the high school because our 15 year-old daughter had a lot of books and didn't want to walk home. I would not be notified that our 17 year-old son wanted me to transfer money into his bank account because once again he'd used more than his allotted gas this month. I wouldn't have to argue with anyone about anything. I could just walk the dog to school.