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TigerBlog attended the monthly head coaches' meeting yesterday.

He decided that he would leave his phone in his desk while he was there, and so he spent about two hours disconnected from the world outside of the room where the meeting was. It's actually a pretty fascinating experience.

TigerBlog was nearly 40 when he got his first cell phone. It was one of those giant analog phones. He was well past 40 when he got his first smart phone, and he was hesitant about that because he knew how addicting it would be.

The average kid these days goes from learning to walk to learning to talk to learning to text and use Snapchat. Back when TB was a kid, and even when he was a younger adult, communications were vastly slower.

TigerBlog can hardly remember what it was like to feel disconnected. The phone has become a method of speaking, writing what used to be considered letter-writing (when was the last time anyone actually wrote a letter?) and so much more. Like an encyclopedia. Like a newspaper. Like a camera. Like a wristwatch. It's all those things and more obviously, which is the point.

As TB has said before, there a million times where he's watching something on TV and sees someone who has been in another show or movie at some point. What does he do? He goes to IMDB to figure out who it is.

He's started watching the show "Nurse Jackie," which is pretty good. It stars Edie Falco, who of course was Carmela Soprano on "The Sopranos," which might just be the best show ever. On this show, she's a nurse in a hospital who is balancing some pretty interesting dynamics in her life. There's another character from the hospital who looked really familiar. TB checked it and then gave the "oh yeah" when he figured out who it was - Father Intintola from "The Sopranos."

What did he do before? Nothing. Just was annoyed that he couldn't figure it out.

Really, what did he do in high school or college when he was running late or was lost or was trying to get in touch with someone?  How about when he first started in the work force, or here at Princeton? It's fascinating to think back on how radically life changed with the advent of just the smart phone.

Or did it just get more convenient, and really things would have been the same anyway? Philosophy 101?

When you're used to having your phone around all the time, you tend to reach for it a lot when it isn't there. You feel phantom vibrating, as if you're getting endless text messages, even though you don't have it with you.

It's a very strange experience actually.

When he got back from the meeting, he had a bunch of texts and emails. He hadn't checked laxpower or Twitter or even played one of his two-minute scramble word games.

And yet he survived.

As for the coaches in the meeting with him, a bunch of them have busy weekends, with some huge games to be played and some championships to be decided.

Where to start? How about with the three championships that will definitely be decided this weekend.

Women's Tennis
Princeton and Harvard enter the weekend at 5-0 each as they meet tomorrow in Princeton. Harvard will then to go Penn, while Princeton will host Dartmouth Sunday. Regardless of what happens Sunday, the winner Saturday will get at least a share of the Ivy League title and will definitely get the Ivy League's bid to the NCAA tournament. So this is a huge one. You can read more HERE.

Golf
The Ivy League golf championships get underway for both the men and women today and run through Sunday. Princeton's women are the defending league champs. The women's event will be at the Metedeconk National in Jackson (about a half hour from Princeton), and the men will be playing in Elverson, Pa., at Stonewall. TigerBlog had no idea where Elverson was, so what did he do? He looked on his phone (it's a map too) and went to the Waze app, which shows that it is 83 miles from Princeton, out the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Both Princeton teams have been here before, with three of the top four women and four of the top five men back from last year. More info is HERE.

Men's Volleyball
Princeton upset top-seeded George Mason in the EIVA semifinals and will now face Harvard tomorrow at 7 in the championship match. Princeton last won the EIVA title in 1998 and started out this season at 0-4 in the league. HERE is the recap.

Rowing
The league championships are still a few weeks away, but every Saturday is busy for the rowing teams. The lightweight men and women are both home this weekend, while the men's heavyweights and women's open are away. There's a ton of information HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Women's Lacrosse
When last we left the Princeton and Cornell women's lacrosse teams, they were playing three wildly intense games in four weeks, including the Ivy League tournament final and the NCAA tournament second round. Princeton won all three. The teams meet again tomorrow (1) on Sherrerd Field in a huge matchup for the Ivy championship and tournament. Princeton (3-1) is in a three-way race for the title with Penn (4-0) and Dartmouth (4-1), while Cornell is one of three 2-3 teams (along with Yale and Columbia) looking to get into the postseason, which will be here very shortly. For more info, click HERE.

Track and Field
Princeton will be hosting the Larry Ellis Invitational today and tomorrow, which means nearly 50 teams will be competing in the men's and women's events. For a lot more info, and especially the schedule, click HERE.

There's more this weekend, of course. The men's lacrosse team is at Harvard. The baseball and softball teams play at Columbia. The men's tennis team is at Harvard and Dartmouth.

You can follow it all on your phone.

Just make sure to keep it with you at all times.