Really?

So I took the kids to a local festival over the weekend and they had a great time.  My oldest really liked this ride called the "Mind Winder", one of those things that swings a bunch of buckets around and you can spin them from inside.  She also had a great time in this giant inflatable obstacle course.

I guess it's a sign that I'm truly getting old that I couldn't believe the packs of teens walking around together barely speaking but rather just banging out text messages or talking on the phone.  Maybe we'd have been the same if we'd had the technology but I'd like to think not.  I got really annoyed when we had to wait because some girl who was too young to have a phone of her own anyway reported that she'd lost hers in the obstacle course.  So there we wait while the operator ran through the thing looking for this girl's phone.

Minutes later somebody else near there brought over a phone they'd found on the ground near there.  Kudos for honesty, yes, but then the operator sat there and tried to find out whose it was.  The final straw in my phone rage, though, was this:

I'm sorry, but if you're so socially co-dependant that you need to talk on your phone while you're ON A DAMN RIDE, then you've got problems.  I know, I know, "maybe it was her mom" or something, but come on.  Really?  You can't wait 90 seconds?  Child, please....I seem to remember going to things like this as a teen and actually spending time with friends.  You know, in person.  Talking to them.

/RANT