Vicky Emerson

It all began on a sunny day in May.

My Mom and Dad came out to visit us in San Francisco but they decided to leave my youngest brother (their pug, Sammy) at home with a dog sitter. About 24 hours after their arrival, the tech savvy dog sitter they hired started taking pictures of Sammy and sending them to my Mom's phone. There were pictures of Sammy sunning himself on the lanai, and pictures of Sammy eating treats on the couch, and pictures of Sammy running outside in her hard. Rough life, eh?

My Mom was so excited to be receiving these things called 'text messages' that she brought her very outdated phone to me and asked me to send the dog sitter a message back.

I said, "What do you want me to write?"

She began, "Please tell her that I miss him very, very much and I'm so happy to see him so happy and that we will be home very soon and that even though we miss him, we are having a very, very good time with Olivia, Vicky and Joe."

When she finished, I said, "Mom-that is an email you just dictated to me. Text messages are very short." So, I wrote, "Glad to see he is happy." And I hit send.

Well, about 2 seconds later she pinged another text back and my Mother's phone beeped to alert that she had received yet another message. Oh, and then she got really exited.

She wanted me to teach her how to respond on her own. I taught her that she would have to hit the key several times in order to choose what letter she needed to make the words. I reiterated to keep it short and to the point. So, she got comfortable on our couch and started to compose her text message. I was out in the kitchen with my Dad but we were able to track her progress because she had the sound up as high as it would go on her phone pad. Every time she choose a letter, the phone made a very loud, "BEEP."

It was almost painful. A minute would go by and we would hear, "BEEP." One letter.

Then, another minute went by and we would hear, "BEEP." Another letter.

Another minute and then, "BEEP, BEEP." Two letters.

After a long beep-filled 20 minutes, she completed her text, hit send and came out into the kitchen with a big smile on her face. "I like this texting thing," she announced.

About 30 seconds later, the dog sitter returned her text and then she scurried back to her place on the couch. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

I told my Dad if she is going to do this, for everyone's sanity, he needed to upgrade her phone and shut the keypad sound OFF!

For those of you that have visited the Kickstarter site, watched the video (our daughter is my new PR agent!) and contributed--THANK YOU!! We are almost a third of the way to the goal but WE ONLY HAVE 18 MORE DAYS LEFT! You can pre-order your new album and it will come autographed to your door before it's available for sale. There is also a Live album up for grabs there as well. I can't record this without your help, so please take a moment and swing by.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1781848481/dust-and-echoes-new-album-by-vicky-emerson

There are acoustic renditions of two new songs on my website for you to listen to (Tennesee and No Glory), if you haven't had an opportunity to hear them live. I'm so excited about this new album! I hope you will consider ordering your copy today! THANK YOU!

 

I hope all the Dad's out there had a wonderful Father's Day!

Take care,

Vicky

www.vickyemerson.com