Could You Make It Through an Entire Work Day Without Your Cell Phone?

The woman in this picture must be having as bad a Monday morning as I am having without my cell phone. When's the last time you went through a day without your phone anywhere near you? Let me give you a little advice:

I didn't do it on purpose. I wasn't trying to unplug from the world or get cut off from my own life, but that's what I felt like happened when I realized 40 minutes into my drive to work that I left my cell phone home.

In the 11+ years that I have been doing this morning show, no matter how out-of-sorts I am feeling at 3:30 a.m. when I get out of bed, I have never left without my cell phone, mainly because it is my lifeline to my kids and their sitter.

Not to mention that I have to be on the air the moment the show starts, and I can't just turn around for a long ride back home to get it.

So I walked into the studio and shared my dilemma on the air, trying to figure out my best course of action.

Because, you see, I was totally unprepared for this to happen. So I hope you will learn from my mistakes what you should have back-ups of, and where you should keep those back-ups:

First of all, when we moved to our new, temporary studios, I forgot to post the new 'hotline' studio number for my sitter and kids in case they couldn't reach me on my cell.

Secondly, the 'back-up list' of emergency phone numbers that I keep was at home. Not in my car, and not at work, which are the two places that I really could have used it.

Thirdly, I don't have ANYONE's phone numbers memorized...not even my own son's cell number.

Fourth, most people aren't awake at 5 am, nor do they want to be woken up to go check on my kids even if I could track down their number. And if they are up, they have their own families and self to get to school/work and don't necessarily have time to check up on yours.

Even though both Lou and Nancy tried calling my cell phone in hopes that my sitter would hear it, I had it on vibrate so as not to have it go off in the middle of our morning show. Therefore, the sitter and my boys couldn't hear it in the place that I had left it.

Now let me say that I am truly blessed with the most awesome sitter who I knew without any doubt would take perfectly good care of my kids without me having to check in. It's just that my kids like to call me throughout the morning to tell me what's on their mind or ask a question about their day, and the thought of them wondering why they couldn't reach me was stressing me out.

It ended up taking me almost FOUR HOURS to track down someone via email (thank you Jenny!!!!!) who could get to my sitter for me. (And it was just in time to find out that the boys had a good morning and got off to school without a hitch.)

And even though I can now breathe a sigh of relief, I still feel like something vital is missing from my day. I have glanced down at the spot on my desk where I keep my phone at least a hundred times already to see if I have any texts or calls. Except there is no phone there.

And what happens if I have a problem driving home from work? I'm pretty sure that there are no emergency phones on the side of the road!

Note to self: Make a new list to keep on my desk at work and in my car of emergency phone numbers. Post a new list for my kids and sitter of my new work phone numbers.

P.S. Thank you to a loyal listener and friend (Jeannette) who called in and offered to go to my house and check on my kids...even though she doesn't live anywhere near me. How sweet are you?!!!!

(Also thanks to Jenn who tried to help, and to Robin who was a great back-up!)