time stamps

I'm very thankful for timestamps, especially regarding text messages.

I was overcome with a violently quick transition into depression tonight while at work. It wasn't a threatening sadness, it was almost comforting but still in some ways uncomfortable. It felt as though a second body had come into me and taken hostage of my own self. I texted Ethan and said, "So depressed tonight. its ok tho. but im at work about to get off and feeling like crying idk why wish u could teleport here i rly wanna watch a old movie w u or something n be depressed hoping its ok to blame the full moon" 
He didn't respond for nearly 2 hours but I didn't mind. I had assumed he was already asleep or simply just didn't care about my silly pity tirade. I got home and began doing the dishes when he texted me,

"Forgot about full moon :) ya im choosing to wallow a bit which is ok i think and maybe u should do the same and find something good to read or movie u love and go back to it" 
I didn't respond because I was too invested in the dishes and getting to my already planned reading. 4 minutes later, when I was done doing the dishes, he sent,
"TV is obviously not an answer to being sad and im wary of those people but there was new PBS show tonight u can probably find called Rivers of the World first episode was about the Nile and i recommend it it slowed me down" 
I knew I wouldn't watch it as all I wanted to do was read, but the time distanced between those two messages was enough for me to feel better. Just 4 short minutes had gone by but it was endearing to know that he felt maybe the first message wasn't enough, or, that the second message was better. I don't know. It sounds silly to look so deeply into something so mundane, everyone is texting all the time at different paces, but it was much better to hear what he had to say than the often read, "Aw im sorry. Gonna head to bed, hope you feel better!" which is also acceptable. It's just very obvious, through timestamps, when you can see that someones intentions are much more intuitive than they are learned. The learned response to respond, or, the intuitive motion of saying something you want to say.
When my best friend Tess and I text, it can be as though we are having two, sometimes even three conversations at once. Tess will first send me "What are you doing tonight" and before I can respond, send, "Look at this photo of ScarJo I found at my job" and before I can even respond to that, she'll send, "walking to b&h meet me there?" It's not overwhelming to me because I love her, and it's not at all hard for me to respond to all three. My responses would be, "no plans." and then, "lol love scarjo can I have it?" and finally, "No i just ate." The timestamps between these messages can vary 5 seconds, 15 minutes, or even 3 hours, but they never annoy me. However, if someone who for some unknown reason bothered me at all, this would be, in simple terms, extremely irritating. If I imagine someone I don't like sending me texts asking about my future, Scarlett Johansson, and if I wanted to eat breakfast, I'd be really, really, annoyed. These are all obvious observations, but it's when I catch myself unable to code switch from texting Tess to texting a crush, that I find I may be too quick to judge when someone decides its time to blow up my phone.

I have no reservations when it comes to casual communication. I don't think too incessantly about timing when texting. I'm not analyzing how I may be read based on the time differences between each unanswered texts. I'm simply just sending someone my thoughts. It's only after the fact that I begin to ponder timestamps labeling the text messages.
When I imagine the time of sending letters, prior to the phone even, I long for that sense of inherent patience. I would consider myself patient, but there are many times when I catch myself checking my phone every 10 seconds to see if so-and-so responded to something I said that's in dire need of an answer of some kind. There is nothing worse than a bitter conversation over text, and 10 minutes feels as though its been hours because you're waiting to hear what so-and-so had to say about your anger. I can't imagine sending someone a letter filled with burning questions that needed answers, and having to wait so long to maybe read what the answer is, that is, if it doesn't get lost in the mail - or even worse, if they decide to even answer it. How would this sort of duration change one's questions?
When for whatever reason I don't respond to Tess and her usually humorous texts, I don't feel bad. She knows, and I know, that the sometimes long gaps in our responses aren't very telling. I didn't respond to Ethan but I don't feel bad because I know, and he also knows, I'll respond in the morning with something unrelated. Those 4 minutes between each short paragraph of advice said more than the advice itself.

anywho, this thought is going on for too long and my eyelids are falling.

-m