living phone free.

so, on saturday night I lost my phone. for good.

It fell off my lap into the snowy road when I got out of The Blaze to scrape ice from the windshield. Someone found it and sent over a hundred text messages and made crank phone calls. good times.

I've obviously had the phone turned off and since I have made calls from our seldom used land line. My new phone arrives tomorrow but I have to admit that I have enjoyed life without a cell phone.

Remember the days when cell phones were few and far between? I have a specific memory of seeing a woman walking down Park Avenue near the PLU campus with a cell phone in hand mid conversation. I remember thinking to myself how crazy that was, having a cell phone and just walking down the street talking to someone. But now I do the same exact thing all the time.

My dad & i have a little joke that everytime I shop at Target we talk, this seems to be true enough as I talk to a lot of people when I'm at Target and seem to forget half of what I'm there for because of it. I have caught up with long lost friends while walking around Lake of The Isles and I have paid utility bills while riding the bus. This of course was all made possible my cellular telephone.

There was a time where the anticipation of getting home was built up due to the possibility of messages waiting on the good old answering machine. In college, I lived in a house with 5 other people. We all shared one phone line and I think our answering machine listed all of our names. We all heard each other's messages and shared the phone bill with each of us having special codes for our long distance services. Yes, long distance. We had to wait around if we were expecting a phone call. And it was really annoying if you were say talking to your boyfriend when your roommate's parents called via call waiting. Now, most of us use our cell phones for long distance calls as there are no long distance fees, no waiting around for phone calls and seldom do I have to get off the phone because a call for someone else is beeping in. And as for long distance, ha! What is that? I don't even think we have long distance on our land line as there is no such thing as long distance in the world of cell phones.

Cell phones may be more convenient but cheaper they are not. My bill averages about $100 per month and I seldom go over my minutes and almost never have roaming charges. I do have a few special options such as insurance (recently coming in handy), unlimited texts, etc, etc, and these hike my bill up. But I guess it's okay since I pay for it every month & don't really think about the cost.

This weekend it was kind of fun to await a phone call knowing if I left home before it came I would miss it. owell, I thought, I have to go. And I did. It was also fun to return home not to check the answering machine because we don't have one, but the Caller ID to see if anyone called.

I tell a good story quite sincerely, but I am eager to receive my new phone tomorrow. I shopped at Target this weekend without my Pebl in hand and there were moments that I reached for it to call someone (probably my dad). I acquired everything I needed as I had little distraction. I guess I'm ready for that distraction once again.

xoxx