look ma, no hands!...by judi sadowsky

yesterday was the first day the new california, hands free cell phone law, went into effect. i, like so many of my fellow californians, was dreading it. many saw it as yet another example of the government meddling in their private lives. it was bad enough that we could no longer smoke indoors, anywhere, in california, or that we had to wear seat belts, creasing our favorite outfits and taking away our right to kill ourselves on the freeway. now, we could no longer hold a cell phone to our ears while driving 65 miles per hour on a freeway. we would no longer be allowed to hold a cell phone, even while driving 25 miles per hour through a school zone. what was the world coming to?

well, guess what. hands free has turned out to be a god send. after only one day, i have come to see the wisdom in this decision. the hand that used to hold the cell phone is now free to do so many other things. while driving with one hand and talking on speaker phone, i am now able to apply make-up, eat my lunch or even text message (for some strange reason text messaging is not illegal while driving).

the best part of the hands free situation is that it has come just in time for those of us of a certain age. you know who i am talking about. we who have started talking, out loud, to ourselves. while once viewed as crazy, as i moved my lips and gestured wildly while driving, now i am seen as someone with something important to say. maybe an agent with a huge movie star client, or a stock broker closing some major deal, worth millions. yes sir. hands free has transformed me, in the eyes of the world, from a loony, middle aged housewife to a mogul.