Joining the "real" cell phone brigade

I think cell phones are a necessary evil in our world. I also think they are one of the most abused pieces of technology we have today. Many people may disagree, but it's my opinion that cell phones have done much to assist people in losing much of the "quiet" in their lives.

But, late this morning I actually signed a two year contract for my very own cell phone...a "real" one.

I've had a cell phone for several years under the TracFone system. It has served my needs fairly well until recently. All I really need a cell phone for is a bit of business travel, and in case of emergency in the event of car trouble.

But, sad to say, TracFone has been letting me down. And, they may have been doing it for quite some time, but since I haven't had any need or desire to have the thing permanently attached to my ear, sometimes three or four days would go by without me checking for messages.

About six months ago it was necessary to start checking messages a bit more frequently. And, I decided to upgrade my analog phone to a more "sophisticated" model - a flip phone.

The purchase was duly made, address book loaded, and life was good, I thought. But, people would tell me they called and I hadn't answered, and in many cases I'd find out it would have been at times when I had the phone on my person, turned on, and often as close as in my pocket.

I figured either I was deaf to the ringtone, or numb to the vibration. At any rate, either I was missing calls, or people were telling me fibs! Since I can't figure any good reason people would be making up a story about callng me, I began to suspect that there was something wrong with my phone.

Oh, and did I mention that the thing would only hold a charge for 24 hours? Now, on top of folks telling me that they'd call, I was now having to tell them in return that my phone had died and I'd missed calls because it was plugged in and recharging and was not even near me.

But the final straw came last Wednesday when it was vital to be in contact with my family while my aunt was dying. I was home sleeping when the phone rang. My cousin was calling. "Kate, Mom's dead". And the phone went dead, too.

Now, Barb can be a bit on the hysterical side sometimes, but there is no way she'd have said just that and hung up the phone. So, I tried to call back. I got one wrong number (on a *redial* no less!) and eventually reached my cousin.

That was Wednesday afternoon. On Friday night as we were going to the visitation, I heard my phone beep. It was in my pocket on 'ring and vibrate'. Not only did it not ring, it didn't vibrate either! Yet there was a voice mail waiting for me from a friend, telling me he was sorry he'd missed me. And, another beep a few minutes later told me there was another message. I opened that one up and it was a voice mail from my cousin from Wednesday afternoon telling me she didn't think the call went through and she wanted to tell me that Ella had passed away.

Get real...A message from Wednesday didn't reach me till 2.5 days later???

And to top it all off, I plugged the phone in once again on Sunday for its daily feeding of electricity and there was no screen after charging. It won't code in anything. It's just....gone.

So, I'm done with TracFone. I'm now with a different company, under contract and all that stuff.

Had to buy a new phone, too, naturally. So, in looking at the "deals", the best offer was a Samsung flip phone for just under 10 bucks. The sales person said that they'd had really good luck with them, maintenance-wise. But, when I held it up to my ear, it felt too angular against my face. So, I looked at a couple of others and had decided to go with a Motorola flip phone that cost $29.95. In its open position, it felt quite comfortable with earpiece and mouthpiece feeling as though they hit the right places on my face.

Next to it was another Motorola phone at a slightly higher price. It was ten dollars higher in price.

"What's the difference in these phones?"

Ah....the technojunkie in me got stroked...it was a camera phone. Didn't even think I'd be able to find one of *those* in a price range I'd like, but there it was! Let's see...cameral phone for only ten more bucks?

I'd have been a fool not to take that!

So, now I hope I'll get my calls and messages in a timely manner! Or at least, that's the plan!!!