retiring an old friend

This is my semi-trusty old phone. I've had to replace it once during this deployment, just a trade-in for another of the same...(musta wore it clean out!)...

This phone holds a crazy place in my heart! It's the first phone Andrew bought me when we were courting. He made a huge move back in February of '06 and "put me on his plan." Gave me a Georgia number and everything! Now wouldn't you call that a bit presumptuous? Or maybe confident. Yeah, we'll go with that. Startled me at first. I mean, didn't it seem fast?

It's today's version of "going steady," I'm pretty sure. See, I didn't need to wear his class ring or letterman's jacket as a promise. Instead, I carried his dog tags and accepted a cell phone on his plan.

This is the phone that hasn't left my side during this entire deployment. It's ring has always been loud to be sure I won't miss it, whether it's in my purse, my pocket, or plugged in on my nightstand. I've come to know its quirks and issues. I've come to love it and hate it. But it's not the phone's fault, entirely.

Separation makes you love the thing that connects you all the while hating it because it's all you can have and it's never enough.

Just the other day, my phone was eligible for the "new in two years" Verizon deal. I needed a new one and I'd been drooling over this!


Yes, I'm the proud owner of a "PinkBerry" that has more features than I've had time to figure out yet!

I'm not quite used to the ringtone, either. My brain must be reprogrammed to hear it even in my sleep, like I could the other one. I would "hear" it even when it wasn't ringing. I can't tell you how many times I've quickly shut off the hair dryer because I thought I heard my phone, but didn't! And those phantom leg vibrations when the phone isn't even in my pocket? Or those weird "my phone's about to ring" thoughts right before it would? I know things about this phone that I logically can't even know!

As the rep was working on my purchase, some grandparents next to me were being so confused by what their particular rep was or wasn't saying. I mean, really. If they needed a new phone, why would they have to start a new contract just to get the phone on a good price? They are already paying on a contract. Their grandchild dropped their phone in the toilet. Same contract, can't you replace my phone? Yes, it is very confusing.

Soon, the grandma left in utter despair and the grandpa looked at my old phone and asked me, "Hey, are you done with that phone? Could I buy it from you?"

The reps (both mine and his) looked incredulously on, wondering how this would go down. I simply responded with, "I don't know about that, cause I was really hoping to make a big deal about smashing this one against a wall when my husband comes back from Iraq."

He didn't push the issue after that. I may have shocked him.

What I didn't tell him was that even if I don't destroy it like we've seriously threatened...I am a little sentimental about it and I won't sell it to a stranger who has no earthly idea what we've gone through together.