I know there is a lot of debate about cell phone useage, and I promise this will not be another too much texting conversation. Actually, this goes much farther then texting.
     I was having  a lot of trouble with my cell phone. For weeks I had to charge it repeatedly during the day and by the end was unable to use it for any actual phone calls, and it barely functioned as anything else. This is when I remembered how heavily I rely on my phone. It gets worse. though. I took it in to research my options. Perhaps my dear phone just needs  a new battery. 
      I swear I can hear you laughing... Yes, I know, it's never "just" a new battery, and when it is, it's a large enough bill that it hardly seems worth it. Well, it wasn't going to be, but furthermore, it did not seem to do much better with a different battery anyway. So the debate begins: if I'm getting a new phone which one will I get.
      My dear phone was a Blackberry. I luved my phone, it went everywhere with me, and I used it all day every day. That may have been the problem. So I did NOT want an IPhone. Why? Because it's an IPhone of course... Yup, that was my only reason. So, I wanted a phone with a keyboard for texting and typing, but the slide out phones die in my hands, and quickly too. What does that leave? A bill for a new phone or forget the keyboard.
        I am sad to say that I choose the less expensive option, but proud to say I did "suck it up" and start adjusting to the fact that I've become on of "them". It works well for all the things I need it to. It is larger then I like, but so is my waist and I haven't traded that in yet. The part I am not proud of is how upset I was over the loss of my old phone.
          How did I manage to get such an emotional attachement to an inanimate object? It didn't love me, it didn't even like me. It was a phone! Yet I was sad to see it unusable, and it seemed wrong to start taking it apart. Then comes the time when you realize everything that is on it. Pictures. Sure, I back them all up, but how many are hidding on that SD card in the back? Videos. My appointments. I do have a written scheduler, but when I'm out and I don't have it everything goes into my phone where I promise it will only be a backup until I get home and write it down. Sometimes, I don't write it down. I have an appointment next week, but I'll be darned if I know what time it is, and since my contacts were in there too, I have to find the number the long way (phone book anyone?) to call and find out. Then there's the stuff you forget about: notes, reminders, tasks, all these will now need to be hand written somewhere else. So far this is NOT saving me any work. If I had written everything down I wouldn't need to worry about it now. I am very thankful however that the phone works well enough for me to get the information off it, I shudder to think about what I would have lost if it had died competly!
           The last thing to say goodbye to are text messages. I've had some great ones on that phone! I've had fights on that phone, made up on that phone, had someone's love declared to me...they are all gone. Sure I can write them out by hand with a time and date stamp, but that's not the same. They are gone. 
          Memories are stored in our hearts. Pictures are stored on our computers. But our lives are in our cell phones. 

Have I learned my lesson? No. Am I doing any better with this phone? No. I am however, copying all the passwords from my password keeper and writing them down, I can't get into anything now!