One GIANT Leap . . .

I did it. I broke down and joined the world of smartphones last Tuesday. I know! I know! I'm a sucker! It is true I have given in to the 3G network, despite my frugality and weak attempts to "stick it" to the cell phone industry. You see, it all happened when my faithful flip phone decided to up and leave the working world on the WORST possible day. It was a beautiful Tuesday, the first of June . . .

Tuesdays have been nightmares for myself and my husband over the course of the past two years thanks to my decision to enroll in a local Masters cohort. It's not that it was a bad idea to go back to school, in fact in my field it is a necessity and therefore a great idea to "get it over with" now, it's just that working full time and going to school has caused many a problem with our time. You see, on Tuesdays I don't get home from work and school until around 9PM. That means I am away from my son and my husband for a total of more than fourteen hours and then when I get home I have barely enough time to prepare for my next day of work and do a little homework before bedtime. Ugh. I know many people do this for a lot longer than I have been doing it, and I commend you for that. Having a six month old is enough of a job on top of working full time that I simply can't add school to the mix without something falling apart.

Anyway, this past Tuesday was a special day. It marked the VERY LAST "Tuesday from Hell" (as I like to call them) because it was the last day I would have to go to both work AND school. My husband had to work at a location over an hour away that day, but was scheduled to pick up our son from the sitter's at the regular time (4PM). Tuesdays are his day to get our son from the sitter's, since I'm in class.

Well I had noticed that my trusty rusty flip phone had been acting up. There were times when the image was distorted and other times when the screen went blank without warning. I had had that phone for three and a half years (far surpassing the "new every two" trap that the cell phone industry coerces its loyal consumers into succumbing to) and had made NO plans to upgrade. However, the evil industry had another plan... and that was for the phone to die after a period of time. Unfortunately it chose last Tuesday to croak and leave me without my modern-day lifeline.

The unfortunate part of the story is that my husband ended up working late and was stuck outside of Detroit at six pm trying to get a hold of me via call or text to no avail.

Our son was still at the sitter's. Luckily she still had a container of baby green beans that he hadn't eaten before. She was at least able to feed him that. My husband picked up our son around 6:30, approximately two and a half hours later than usual. We are blessed with a sitter who doesn't mind spending time with our baby, so she was ok with the entire situation and now we really owe her!!!

Had my phone been working, I would have left class and got him myself. Some of you may argue that my husband should have called the place where I was in class, but that would not have worked because its office is closed when we are in the building and no one would have been available to answer their phone. Plus since we were in class, none of my classmates had their phones on.

Luckily I was able to leave class early that night and therefore able to run to the cell phone store before they closed. I knew if I didn't get to the store that night, I wouldn't have a phone for a few days because my schedule was booked. After shopping around for a VERY short time, and with my husband's approval, I made the decision to buy the new smartphone. We mainly wanted it for the GPS navigation. Despite the urge to resist the impulse and continue to defy the norm by avoiding a phone with a data plan. . . I gave in. I wasn't thrilled with the phone, was given no tutorial at the store due to the rash decision, did absolutely no research, and in fact knew very little about this particular phone at all. I left the store feeling like Dave Ramsey would want to hit me in my typically budget-savvy head and knock some sense into me.

When I first started playing with the phone, I HATED it. In fact, I almost took it back the following day but then reconsidered after a friend told me that a salesman told her to give it a few days to get used to it. I didn't want to give it a few days. What I wanted was to give it a kick out the window. I accidentally dialed my friend's husband at 5AM. I sent countless misspelled emails before they were done being written. I couldn't figure out how to reach my Aunt or my own father because I didn't understand my contacts. I was as technologically frustrated as a caveman. I thought to myself, "Am I really only 29? Why can't I figure this out!?!?! I'm sure many my age would have had this gadget mastered by now!"

It took a few days, but I slowly started to learn the ropes of the smartphone. I started becoming the "smartphone addict" that I never wanted to be. I learned how addicting the phone can be and how much time can be spent either wisely or wasted on it. I downloaded dozens of free apps. I felt my life become both more organized and more complex with every press of the word "install". Since I had no prior knowledge nor experience with a smartphone, I was blown away by its capabilities. I had known I could email and social-network on the phone, but I didn't know there was an app for coupons and the ability to scan barcodes for the best deals, had no clue about the convenience of the recipe apps such as "Recipe Puppy" and the menstrual/ovulation calculator (hey, it's too soon for baby #2!), and never could have fathomed that the Pandora satellite station would make me want to give my MP3 player away! With every downloaded app, I seemed to find one with more and more life-significance that I just HAD to have!

And then I found one that I really did HAVE to have... the Calorie Counter. And so begins my journey...