So now that we have our little girl home, we’re trying to get back to “normal life” as much as possible. One aspect of normal life is actually going out once in a while, like on Monday nights when we have Big Band practice. I also committed to playing background music at a party in a few weeks, and I don’t know if Michael will be in or out of town at that time, so it might be necessary to have a babysitter.
We have a few babysitters we use that we really trust, so we’ve never worried too much before if we were going to be out of touch for a few hours, say at a Big Band gig. But now that it’s a possibility that the babysitter would have to call 911, well, we want to stay reachable. That means giving in to that little piece of technology we’ve been purposely avoiding for many years: the cell phone.
Now, I did have a cell phone once upon a time, but that was about 10 years ago, and I think it’s safe to say that I’m pretty out of the cell phone technology loop these days. I must’ve looked like a total moron this fall when a friend pulled out a Blackberry (or something equivalent — ’cause, seriously, I have no clue about these things) and started entering some text and my eyes practically bugged out when the device started finishing her words for her. That’s not really such advanced programming, it totally makes sense, but I’d never thought of it or heard of it and I was momentarily dumbfounded.
All of which is my long-winded way of sending out a plea to those of you who are more up-to-date than I am to supply us with some much-needed advice. I don’t think we’ll be using the phone a whole lot for day-to-day living; with me at work and Michael at home, we’re usually reachable by phone, anyway. I don’t think we need fancy calenders or the ability to send text messages. But maybe these things are inseparable these days? I dunno. Again, total cell phone ignoramus here.
The other thing I don’t know anything about, which is part and parcel of the problem, is what types of contracts there are, what types of cell phone plans. My dad researched one offered by Bell while we were in Vancouver: I think it included 250 minutes for $40 a month and we could call anywhere in Canada on those minutes. (Which would then make it tempting for us to do all our long-distance calling on that phone, which would mean we might use a lot more than just a few minutes a month. Hmmm.)
Okay, so you see the level of not-knowingness I’m working from here. Those of you who are in the know, please help!
