A early birthday gift

Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me-eeeee. And Merry Christmas as well!

Yes, I bought the new 3G iPhone on Tuesday night. It is a gift from my in-laws, parents, husband, and anyone else I could beg ask for gift money. Of course, I wonder if one of them would like to give me cash monthly because this gift keeps on taking, at least from my wallet.

But I love it. And I am hooked.

Let's start at the beginning of my journey with the iPhone...

It all began when this handy little machine made its first appearance. I was immediately obsessed curious. Which was strange because I am not a huge gadget person. We never update our computers - they are updated via hand-me-downs. My laptop was a freebie. It is big and clunky and I really don't care.

Though the MacAir looks pretty cool...but that is another product. Back to the iPhone.

In the past, I have only upgraded my basic cell phone every 2 years to the freebie offered by AT&T for signing up for 2 more years of their service. So it was a bit out of character for me to visit an iPhone when walking past them at the mall. But the phone was so darn intriguing!

Strange I tell ya. But I absolutely wanted that phone. But at the time they cost about a million bucks about $600. So I would just dream because there was no way this practical at home mom NEEDED a $600 phone. I mean, what if the baby drooled on it????

Then, as they went down a little in price, my brother finally bought one. He called me on that day to rub it in share the good news. He is a high tech junkie and it made sense, but I admit that I was a bit envious.

Till about 9 months later when he went swimming with it. And it broke.

After 6 weeks of putting it in rice, over air vents, blow drying it, and all other kinds of tricks from a desperate man, he had it working 90% of the time. But the phone has a water sensor, so he couldn't trade it in to upgrade. After a few seconds days of debating it, he decided that he'd just buy the new one.

And he GAVE me the old one. For FREE!

Oh did I have fun playing with it for a month. I didn't have any service on it, so I just used free wi-fi and messed around with the screen...LOL. After a month of it working perfectly, I decided to add a data plan to my AT&T account and get service on this phone.

We have been AT&T customers for 10 years, so our plan is dirt cheap and they haven't been able to change it. Now it was going to be dirt cheap + $20, you know, for my FREE iPhone.

And for 4 months, it was blissful.

But the water was slowly working its destruction and this weekend, the homekey died. I desperately tried to restore this thing and find some solution on line. But alas, it was to no avail.

NOT GOOD!

It was time to give it up and go get a normal cell phone, but I was devestated. Until my husband convinced me to get the phone. We had revamped all the calendars on this house to electronic around that little phone and there were a lot of other handy uses as well! He was convinced. I was pretty convinced.

So off I went to buy my new iPhone and upgrade his plain 'ole cell phone by signing on for 2 more years. Then the iPhone people informed me that the data plan on the new iPhone would cost me another $15 a month.

ARGH! All this because of a FREE iPhone I was given!

I left. Because I am so stinkin' practical I debated this decision for two hours at the mall. TWO HOURS!

In the meantime I got my hubby a free upgraded phone (it has been 3 years), a free car charger AND a free bluetooth headset.

And I debated just doing the same for me. Because that would be practical.

But just call me completely impractical these days because I left that mall with the iPhone.

And I love it!

My favorite feature, by far has been the calendar. I know it sounds silly, but to an at home mommy of three, a calendar is very important. As soon as I began playing with the phone, I started using the digital calendar on it. It syncs with Microsoft Outlook when you plug it in the computer.

WOW. I threw away my planner. My entire life for YEARS had been planned out of the black zipper case. And now it was gone.

Oh it felt GREAT!

Until the phone broke. But now it is back.

Welcome back iPhone! Good to have you again. Especially now that you are working.