A Fairy Lives in my Phone

At Christmas time I was due for a free upgrade on my cell phone plan and it was time for the big decision. Should I go for a Smart Phone or just keep swearing at the old flip style?

Because I’m clumsy finger-wise it was a true dilemma. I’d tried iPhones and got almost as frustrated with the do-overs required while texting as I did with the 1-2-3 (sometimes 4) to punch out one letter of a message on my older style phone. However, because of my mother asking me this question (yes, my mother), “Well, sweetheart, which kind of phone would be better for your new business?” – I went with the Samsung Galaxy, a smart phone which has the keyboard that slides out. I have not used that keyboard once.

Why? Because my brilliant daughter bought me a stylus pen for Christmas, and now I punch happily away with that and my messages actually make sense. Instead of, “TWxt mr baxk” my friends and family now get “Text me back.” Viola!

But I digress. We were talking about the fairy that lives in my phone, or we were supposed to be. I’ll call her Irma. I didn’t meet her until I set my alarm for the first time and found that she could send me a spritely little tune right out of the fairy-forest playbook for three minutes before I even had to open my eyes. That was followed by another pixie song that functioned as the actual alarm, which was so soothing I didn’t really want to turn it off - all this after years of the blat-blat-blat of my old cell phone alarm.

Now that I know Irma lives inside my Samsung I am only a little jealous of my daughter’s live-in Siri. She’s got the iPhone 4 that has this incredible creature to guide her through life. I was blown away when she spoke into her phone instructing Siri to send me a text saying “I love you.” Seconds later, the dictated message appeared. On Christmas Eve, my daughter and I talked to and about Siri for hours. Siri has never met Irma or vice versus. It’s probably just as well, because the only concrete evidence of Irma’s existence is in my alarms. That leaves her a tad bit under-powered to do battle (oops, I mean meet) Siri.

Here’s the new dilemma – with the next free upgrade will I abandon poor Irma for a Siri clone? Stay tuned.