Wireless and the City

I got rid of my landline because I realized that whenever I was using my phone I was on the street or on the train. Or I was on my porch, where reception on my cordless was bad. It was a hassle to be checking two voicemails. The cost of long-distance is also a lot cheaper now — I make calls for free after nine and on weekends.

I love my wireless phone — it's so much more convenient and so much easier. I feel like I've simplified at least one aspect of my life. I even threw out my landline phone. My only complaint is the $30 activation fee the guy forgot to tell me about.

My phone is definitely a tool for communicating with friends. A large portion of what I do is voicemail and text messaging. My friends and I talk in advance to coordinate where we're going to go, but if something comes up on the fly, and people are out at a noisy club, we use text messaging to coordinate from there. One time we were en route to a club, and I text-messaged a friend who was already there to put us on the guest list — it made more sense instead of sending him a voicemail he wouldn't check for hours.

None of my friends has a camera phone yet. No one wants to spend the money. And besides, a lot of them have digital cameras. Anyway, a phone is kind of like a car — if it's a Lexus, it's cool, but anything will do the job. If you have decent reception, can reply to a text message and leave a voicemail, that's what important to me.

The joy of the new phone has not worn off yet. I even love my ringtone. I haven't heard another like it — it's very soothing. It's like hearing my baby cry. If I had a baby.