This past New Year’s Eve marked the first one for my husband and me to actually go out in Sydney — though, with two kids and middle age defining our lives, “going out” consists of joining friends at the North Sydney Olympic Pool for a family night of swimming and fireworks. And, it turned out, several deluges of persistent rain that ruined my phone.

When my head hit the pillow that night in a rosé-induced haze, my phone was sitting in a bowl of rice on the table beside me. Later the next day, the rice was revealed not to have done its job and I entered the new year phoneless.

Read the rest over at Mockingbird!