My Wife is Getting a New Phone, Naturally I'm Jealous

We have a contract with Verizon which means that every 2 years we get a Christmas-esque present, a new phone at a "discounted price."  Next month my lovely wife, Jenn, gets to pull the ribbons and tear open the box on a new smartphone.  She's currently eye-balling the Samsung Galaxy S4, although the Samsung Note 2 and Galaxy S3 are still in the running.  And just as I type this I can't help but think of how many people would be drooling over the screen just thinking about having such an incredible piece of technology.

Its so funny looking back on all this.  Less than 10 years ago I was phone-less.  Stuck in my ways of preserving a kind of machismo of "that's not how they built this country" and also trying to keep a sense of personal space I just hated the idea of someone calling anytime, anywhere and interrupting the very thing I sought to do without them.  There were 255 million cell phones in use at that time and everyone else was an AARP member or yours truly.  Can you tell that I was an introvert at one time?

Finally, I started to realize that if I was going to keep pace with the competition and stay in step with my colleagues and friends I would need to get a cell phone.  Funny thing is, naturally, back in 2006 or so I didn't buy a cell phone.  I bought a Verizon XV6700.  At the time it was one of the most advanced phones out there.  It had a web browser, email client, infrared beam (which i still miss), touch screen, apps (at the time still known as programs), it was incredible.  To tell you the truth it wasn't much different from the smartphones of today.  Going from no cell phone to this thing was basically my way of going straight to the high dive on the first day of swim lessons.

"Mr. Know-it-all"

A couple years ago I convinced my lovely wife to get a smartphone.  After all, living in the Bay Area, you're simply not hip if you're not playing Diamond Dash with friends while waiting at the bus stop.  Hek, you're not even hip if everyone in your entourage is not playing Diamond Dash with friends while waiting at the bus stop.

I didn't say anything about Diamond Dash to sell my wife on the idea of a smartphone though.  She is truly a professional woman and a marvel of surpassing goals in life.  People like her have no need for Diamond Dash.  We talked about the messaging capabilities, the mapping and GPS components, the web browsing, yada yada yada.  Unfortunately though, in our moments of low standards our bonding time consists of laying on separate portions of the couch while I read the news on my phone and she feeds Pou on her's.  Yes... this is what we've become.

But what we have to keep reminding ourselves is that if necessary, we can share our location with all our friends, offer commentary on their Facebook statuses, take a picture of our meal, and GPS our way home all with one device and not think twice about.  And when we go to bed instead of having to look each other in the eye we can simply text message each other how much we love each other.  After all, what can an emoticon say that you or I cannot?

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Smacking Cheesecake #9:  When travelling you can always do better

Vine for Android App:  This is what the world looks like to people with ADD

Best thing about Jenn #1:  He hair disintegrates into glitter when 

it falls from her head.