Isn’t it nice that there are so many helpful apps that already have my credit card so I barely have to move a finger to spend?
Like the complete stranger who drove me home from work today while we chatted away like old friends. I got into his car at a corner, and got out in front of my house; no money passed hands.
Take yesterday for example, when I became a new user of Venmo. Our son was home last weekend, with his girlfriend. When they left to drive back north, he managed to forget not only his key ring, but also the cookie tin filled with the most delicious chocolate chip peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made. They may indeed be the only such cookies ever to come out of my kitchen, but they were jaw-droppingly-good. I had carefully divided them into two tins – 6 cookies for me and my husband, 12 for our son. His poor girlfriend will be lucky if she gets any of them, I figure. Off I went to work, and they began their long drive north. Later that evening, I got a text asking if he’d left his keys at our house. I went to the key bowl by the door, and found the ring there. 
Soon we were texting about the solution.
C:How quickly can you get me my keys?
M: Well, there are two options. I can overnight them tomorrow morning, and you have them by Tuesday, or I send my private drone up there right now to deliver them to you. Which’ll it be?
C: Overnight shipping I guess. Send the cookies, too.
Ever the over indulgent parent (ask all my friends, they’ll back me up on this), the next morning I trotted over to the UPS store, which is only steps from our condo. I put the cookie tin and keys down on the scale and the clerk told me it would be $67.00 to get them to him by the next day. I grimaced but paid the money and walked out of the store. My phone buzzed and I looked down.
C: Download the Venmo App
While I was still walking home, I downloaded the app and began scrolling through the 12 pages of details I needed to agree to before I could be repaid. I would be giving yet another app my credit card for the privilege of getting paid back for shipping cookies.
Always an early adopter, I soon had the app up and running. I typed in the $67.00 and hit Submit. Ka-ching! Now the cookies had cost me $134.00; apparently there is both a request button and a pay button; I had hit the pay button. Other features of this app – you can see who has paid whom and for what. You can pay them on Facebook. Though why you would want to do that, I can’t imagine. Chris had paid someone a few bucks for “rhino farts.” I was, however, at this point, pretty steamed. Of course, rolling back the tape, I could have just said to the UPS Store clerk:
Whoa! $67.00 is a bit steep for 8 cookies and a set of keys, right? I’ll just send the keys.
But no, I sent the damn cookies.
lifeinthethe8tre 