NO, I have not become one of those people that jumps on the latest and greatest thingy. I'm the grumpy old lady that waited years before I got a cell phone, even. My hand was forced as one year I got four (!) flat tires in one winter and discovered, the hard way, that payphones don't exist in Minneapolis anymore and if a rare one pops up, it is usually in a scetchy area that you wouldn't send your worst enemy to. Lately my Razor has been annoying me (sometimes stupid crap annoys me), not comfortable, lame interface, that I said I'd replace it with something else when the time came. Then, this morning, after I taught a distance class I was gassing-up my car and went to turn on my cell phone (when driving in the praire one needs to be fully-armed with a cell phone in the event of an accident, which for me, is a reality) the piece-o-pink-metal-plastic-crap wouldn't do it's thing. It just sat there, mute. I don't know why I'm like this, but I just keep on pressing its spiteful red button and it laid dead in my palm.
CRAP!
Off I went to Verizon, one of my least favorite places in the world (second only to the OBGYN). It's such a scam. They lock you into these contracts that feel like you'll end-up in debtors prison if you miss even one payment. Luckily, I got the "General Manager" (who had the skinniest fingees I've ever laid my bulging peepers on) who was wearing a bright pink sweater set and had died yellow hair, but nice. I told her my emergency (in my saucy way) and within seconds she popped the back off of my phone and revealed the evil red dot. "Um, this dot means your phone got wet," she said, nicely. I replied, "Nuh uh" (smooth, I know) "It did not, seriously." "I don't know what to say," she said, "but this red dot means not only did it get wet, but it got really wet, like submerged in water." Okay, now, I was serious when I said I didn't get this thing wet. True, my last razor fell into the toidee (won't get into it here) and I fished it out (post flush, of course) and I fully admitted to that one. But this time, no way Jose, I didn't play dunk-the-cellphone with my pink nightmare. The dot doesn't lie, I guess. Yet, I wonder, maybe the dot is a scam, maybe it's heat activated and in time turns red. That way, when their cheap phones punk-out they sqeeze more money out of us saps. Nightline should do an investigation.
So why replace it with a Blackberry? Don't get me wrong, here, I had been thinking about obtaining such a device for my sojourn back to the big, bad city, I had just planned on doing it after I moved. But Verizon had me on a 2-year contract ending in November and my cancellation fee was close to 200 clams so it was eat or be eaten. PLUS, I am so tired of lugging my old-school Franklin Planner to and fro. This way, I can synk my calendar at work and keep the Franklin at work for my notes and stuff. It also turns out there was a nice, tidy rebate sum as well as a decent package (I always go over in texting). AND, should I be above ground I can check work emails and the like.
So I did it. I took the plunge. I am supposed to be technology girl anyway, it's about time I get out of the 90's and into eletronic calendaring. The interface rocks, looks good, sharp, bright, easy-to-use, all things my Razor was not. Oh, and did I mention, it's cute?
When I master the bad-boy, I'll update y'all. Until then, check out this cool website: http://lifehacker.com/
**UPDATE ON DOG-BARKING NEIGHBOR DISPUTE**
Being the Bulldog that I sometimes am paid-off. The downstairs neighbor guy who flamed me on my doggie replied to my reply with a comment that went something like this, Yeah, your dog has been getting better, it just caught me on a bad day as I'd just gotten home from a trip. An apology...could it be? NOPE. No sireee. He just started complaining about the building and pinned his desire to leave more on the dust and neighboring train yard than anything else. Perhaps I throw a going-away party for him? What do you think?
