My New Favorite Thing

My children are the most generous of all the children in the world . . . admittedly, that’s an exaggeration but it is my personal experience. They are also extraordinarily thoughtful. And they’re good listeners to boot.

Several months ago I opened my cell phone bill to see that I had exceed my allotted minutes and owed a horrifying $261! I immediately upped my minutes which consequently increased the monthly charge from $39.99 a month, plus $5.00 for text messages to pay $69.99, plus all the user fees, surcharges, state taxes, federal taxes, and of course the extra for those all important text message. The $75 plus just gave me talk time; no bells or whistles.

Around the same time Peter, always the forerunner on the latest and greatest, bought an i-phone. When Peter is enthusiastic about something he lets everyone know - hmmm, I wonder where he learned that trait? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and I will admit we’re a lot alike in that characteristic. Anyway, after hearing about all the cool features of his new phone I began to explore the possibilities of one for little ‘ole me! I spoke to several friends who owned one and they too raved about the neat accoutrements. Internet access! GPS! Wi-Fi! i-Tunes! Calendar! E-mail! And above all – cool, interesting and occasionally useful – applications or “apps” for short. For the same price I was paying to Verizon for my no-longer cool flip phone that could only text and call, I could have all the fun, excitement and additional features an i-phone can offer.

Well those fabulous children, bought me an i-phone for my birthday! I added a cute little pink rubberized jacket to protect its new little body and keep it scratch-free for as long as possible. The first night I stayed up until 11:00pm experimenting how to do various things. I still have a fair amount of work to do like not panicking when a call comes in and I can’t remember how to accept the call. Peter promises to give me a tutorial on the more intricate idiosyncrasies and I want to update each contact with a picture. I guess that’s my truly favorite part of the phone. When I have linked a picture with a phone number, a huge image of that person comes up on my screen and I don’t have to guess who I’m talking to! So please be cooperative when I ask to take your picture – it’s simply so I can identify you without putting on my readers!