After a few years of despising the concept, I got my first cellphone when I moved to the big city, in December of 2000. I promptly got rid of my land line, and have been cell-only ever since, barring last year in Rochester. My first phone was a workhorse, a Samsung 3500 that lasted four years, in two iterations: one, until I dropped it in a hot tub and some of its features stopped working, though it still made calls just fine, and its free replacement, which lasted until December of 2004, at which point I bought its replacement, my current phone, an N200, for thirty bucks on eBay.

(I’m not counting the A900, which I bought when we moved to L.A. last year and then promptly lost at the bowling alley three months later; that was a mistake in every way.)

So, I was rocking the eBay phone that made and received calls, on a monochrome screen, with no texting abilities, no web connection, no camera, no nothing, and on Friday, after less than a week or hemming and hawing and contemplating, Aimee and I went to the Apple Store in Santa Monica and I bought an iPhone. I tried to wait, but it didn’t work, and my marathon-cancellation depression was as good a reason as any to put me over the edge. I thought I’d last longer, but Aimee was sure I wouldn’t, and she was right. And now it’s all different. We had to wait a few minutes, but not long after we got there, after professing not to know when the next shipment would come in, the staff started bringing out the stanchions, and we all got in line.

The set-up was very easy, and porting my number over and getting hooked up took all of three or four minutes. What a difference it makes: not only did my phone get exponentially better, but I got an amazing video iPod, a mini web browser, a nice texting interface, a perfectly decent camera, and an indispensable mapping system to boot. The concept of being able to be connected to anything at all beyond making a phone call is amazing. The phone as a whole is great, as good as they say it is and perfect for my needs. Using sub-par technology for seven years will make whatever comes next look great, but this is an inconceivable leap. It all works really well, and I look forward to more tweaks, upgrades, and other developments as they come. Now if only I could switch out the Stocks button for sports scores or movie times…