Is that a flashlight in your pocket...?

I think I may have started a riot in my house last week when I pulled out my cell phone to see the keyhole of the front door (after repeated "please leave the light on" requests went ignored). I used my cell phone for light. Now, I use it all the time. The kids have known this secret of cell phones for some time. They thought I'd lost my mind when I was so excited...

Those of you who've known me for a while are familiar with my goofy fall-down-the-stairs incident in March of '07. I broke my foot. I got home late on a Sunday and came up the stairs at our temporary resident (the in-between house so the kids could finish out the school year) and my daughter yelled for a glass of water. OK, she was 14 at the time and very capable of getting her own damn water, but I'm still that kind of mom and I like time with her, so I turned around, left the light off and walked down the stairs. Almost all 13 of them. It was a stair snake that got me, I believe. The next few hours and weeks were painful and horribly embarrassing (the old "I've fallen and I can't get up" ads run through my head when I think of this time in my life.)

If I'd only used my cell phone to light my way, it would have turned out differently.

Now, at the current house, I have a very dark, oddly shadowed stairway. I never go down it in the dark. Ever. To the chagrin of my kids (my office is downstairs, after all, so midnight writing/crying/whiskey drinking jags are spent down here). I always turn the light on. But lately, it's been easier to just flip open the razr and illuminate the steps enough that I can see when I'm on solid ground again.

Remember when we were little, and there was something you always wanted, were totally devastated when it wasn't under the Christmas tree, knew there wasn't a Santa because he wouldn't have let you down? My big wish was for a flashlight. For the steps. Because I was always worried I'd fall down them in the night, since my room was in the attic. Those stairs were steep. But we did have streetlights that illuminated a bit so I did ok. But I never got my flashlight. What a lame kid I must have been...

Last year, I got my flashlight. The police-officer-please-don't-beat-me-with-that kind. It's blue and weighs about 10 pounds. I can adjust the beam. People can see me when I walk Ez and carry it at night. If I can carry it. The thing weighs a ton.

Plus, I have my cell phone to light my way. I have two!! Little things make me happy.