ilove and at&t : Wherein a certified cell phone hater meets the love of her life.

I am in love. Completely, totally, head-over-heels in love.

With a phone. A CELL phone.

Now, most of you might not know this about me, but up until now I have been a major cell phone HATER. Seriously.

So when my bud Angela got her iphone and then posted on FB how she would marry it if she could. Well, I thought she had gone over the edge. What a crazy lady.

Hah.

The difference a year makes.

To explain the hateraide I have for cell phones, you have to understand my history with them. First off, I don't normally WANT to be found when I run away from home. Or do errands. Whatever. So a cell holds no attraction.

Then came the insults. We never live close to family so whenever we have vacation time it is usually spent going and visiting relatives and close friends.

Ever watched your kids be totally ignored and snubbed because the person they are visiting is too busy texting or talking to the people they see every day...and ignoring the one that just drove 800 miles to visit?

Ever watched parents not monitor kids or give a flying flip? Or worse....have it be the adults that are being rude?

Unfortunately my kids have been hurt far too often by rude cell users. It's hard to watch that and keep your mouth shut. And when your kids tell you they don't want to come back again -- why do we have to drive so far for this? LITTLE KIDS telling you that. Well, you tend to get a very bad taste in your mouth. And really hate cell phones.

I did end up getting one while living in Omaha. Hubs was gone more than not so I spent alot of time driving to Texas to visit my mom. That is a long drive. And at first we were doing it in a rather old car. There is not alot on the toll road we spent most of our time on...so I needed something for break-down emergencies. (And after a bit I just decided it was time for our first new car for that same reason -- yes, we went 18 years without ever buying a new car.)

So the last 10 years I've had a phone but it has seen minimal use. No camera. No extras -- just a plain phone with bare bone minutes. And I'd have the oldest phone in any given group. Didn't care. Mine worked better nine times out of ten and you couldn't kill them if you tried. They don't make them like that anymore. No texting either.

So fast forward to the present. The teen is going on 15. My first teen, and this one have always been on a pay-as-you go Virgin Mobile. LOVE IT. The only talking they could get away with was to call me to come get them or whatever. $20 every 3 months was also budget friendly. No texting. No internet. SWEAR BY IT.

But here we are with a girl instead of a boy this time around. And she started running out of minutes in a month. And it was legit stuff. This one keeps me hopping and busy.

So after much discussion - daddy talked me into putting Songbird on my plan. (He has his phone through work so we don't pay for it.) I was not an easy sell. But I had been monitoring how the minutes were being used and had to admit it was legit so it was time to move her up.

During all of this, Hubs told me I might as well move up to an iphone. I laughed. What would I do with the big daddy cell phone? I don't even use the one I have. And the increase in the bill would be insane.

And in the end...he pointed out how Songbird was going to have a better phone than me. We had decided to get her a text plan so she needed something better than what I was carrying.

Hmmm. Not sure I can have that.

So, the hard sell finally worked. I was going to get a iphone.

Except I had a new phone. I wasn't eligible for a replacement phone for almost 2 years. SB was covered because it was a new line. But for me...it was special deal price plus $75 for the early replacement. Eww. And after explaining what I wanted and didn't want...they were able to give me the iphone under SB name and the text phone under mine and then swap the chips.

SWEET. Loving AT&T that day.

And to cut this a little bit shorter....I started downloading apps and use this thing ALL THE TIME. Will expand on that in another post - this one is getting way too long.

But it gets better.

I was expecting a huge bill the first time with activation fees and partial months, etc. etc. But I was not expecting it to be over $300.

Nope. Shock! (Hair standing on end.)

So I called AT&T and asked if they could help me figure it all out since I went from a one page bill to about a 6 page bill. And the lady was awesome. And in the end....my bill was reduced to $95.

Unbelievable.

There were a couple of mistakes...but really they were just awesome to me. Dropped the activation fees and even the $75 for early upgrade.

I was shocked.

And I loved them ALMOST as much as I love my phone.

So there is the beginning of the story of my love affair with a phone.

And yes I know I'm way behind the times. But that's okay. You guys that are right on top of it...you paid for the new technology. And you got all the bugs worked out for me. So, thank you!

And later I'll tell you about my cool stuff. Cause if you need or want something...I'm telling you...there's an app for that!!!