new era

Well, a new era has begun - I have a new phone!

It all happened quite suddenly. I have been using Taz's cell phone (and his phone number) for about a year now because the lovely pink phone he'd bought for my birthday in 2018 had stopped working.

I felt bad about having to stop using the pink phone, it had meant so much to me and I'd planned to use it forever, but I was also kind of happy to use something Taz had loved so much. He had a Note 3 which he got in 2013 or 14. It was definitely an old phone but it worked ok. It had been his constant companion for all those years. I can still picture him on the couch, nose buried in his phone. While I still prefer a laptop, he used his phone for everything.

So, every time I would get frustrated with its quirks and think about a new phone, I would think about how much this one meant to me and put away any disloyal thoughts.

Until this week when the phone started locking up on me every time I tried to use it. I finally had had it, it was time for a change. It helps that I received notice that my car insurance rates were going down and I will have help with the mortgage payment and utilities starting this month.

I went on the ATandT website and started looking for the cheapest phones they had. I contemplated an IPhone but I've been an Android girl almost since the beginning of cell phones. I did have an IPhone for a few years but when I saw the first Samsung Note phone, which was ginormous for the time, I was hooked. I had my Note 2 phone for many years until it got so old that many of my apps stopped working. Then I had my pink Note 4 for six months and then Taz's Note 3 for the last year. I'm nothing if not loyal so I clicked on the link for the Note 9. The price per month is exactly the same as the reduction in my car insurance so that seemed like a good sign.

And then I noticed that it came in lavender! Oh my gosh, that's only my very favorite color. It was like God himself came down and told me that I deserved something good in my life and that I should get this phone.

So I did.

It came very quickly - I ordered it on Wednesday night and it was delivered Thursday afternoon. Another great sign, right?

The camera on the new phone is amazing and I've only scratched the surface of what it can do, I'm sure. That's my god daughter, Kiki, playing on my old phone in my room last night.

She was in there because I was in there glued to the new phone all evening. I have a love/hate relationship with new phones. I only ever get them once my old phone has lived way past its prime so I'm always thrilled to get something that's going to work so much better but it's such a pain to set up new phones, get all the pictures and ringtones just right, get rid of all annoying notifications, install all the apps again, remember all the passwords to the apps that I haven't had to worry about for years. It can be a very stressful experience. LOL

This time, the most important part for me was getting my lock screen and home screen pictures back. The one above is my lock screen. I took that picture at Marina beach where we used to live. Taz was wearing his favorite explorer jacket, looking out at the ocean and probably dreaming of travel. I also have that picture on my wall here at the office because it epitomizes Taz to me.

This is my home screen picture. I also took this one on September 12, 2018 in Moss Landing, CA at Phil's Fish Market when we were on vacation. Going to Phil's was the only thing Taz really had on his agenda on our last trip to California. Being able to get cioppino there was a milestone for him. He had wanted it for the last few years that we lived in California but it's not cheap and we just couldn't afford it. Being able to get it in 2018 meant so much to him and made him happy so he asked me to take a picture to mark the moment. Now it means the world to me that he got this happy moment. Look at the smile on his face - priceless.

In front of Phil's

So last night the first thing I did once I got the phone activated was to put these 2 pictures up. They have been the pictures I've used on Taz's phone for this past year and they will be the pictures I continue to use for the foreseeable future. Having them on my new phone makes me feel like I'm not really leaving Taz behind even though I'm not using his phone anymore.

It's weird the little things you cling to when you lose someone you love.

One cool feature about my new phone is that I can take a picture by clicking a button on the stylus. This will take my selfie game to a whole new level...and you know how much I love my selfies! That was me demonstrating how it works in the picture on the top of this post. That will be the last time you ever SEE the stylus in the picture. I couldn't figure out how to get the stylus out of the phone at first, it didn't work the way my other 2 Notes had worked, so my youngest god daughter, the 8 year old, gently took the phone from me (as if I was an aging imbecile) and figured it out right away. That was just a little humbling.

I had a good evening last night. I had a couple of hours in the house by myself although I spent most of it in my room working on the phone. But I went out to the living room and ate my dinner while the rest of the family ate theirs then I even stayed out and watched a video (lord help me, it was another video of a guy playing Minecraft) although I was probably looking at my phone more than the TV. Then the kids grabbed my 2 other phones and started playing games on them. Eventually I ended up with 2 of the 3 kids (plus Charlie and at least one cat) in my room, everybody on a phone. The kids discovered that a piano app that I had on both of my old phones (that I only used to practice solos) had a game that lets you play songs on the piano so it certainly wasn't quiet in my room last night...and that was fine by me.

It's the start of a new era in so many ways - new year, new decade, new phone. I wonder what other new things the year has in store for me?