Phone's Ringin', Dude

Corey and I got Vonage shortly after we moved to Pittsburgh, predominantly because I was eating up our shared cell phone minutes doing phone interviews for articles. We initially just used a free Conair corded telephone that came with a hairdryer I found at Big Lots. Both the phone and hairdryer soon petered out.

In order to still have a phone in my office, we needed a quick solution (we never bothered to replace the hair dryer). I had been spending the weekend at my parents' house and just stole an old, old, old cordless phone. Like Zack Morris old. It worked in a pinch and was only supposed to tide us over til we remembered to go to Best Buy.

The phone was terrible. For starters, the 3 didn't work. Whenever I had to initiate a phone interview, I'd cringe and fear lateness if the number contained a 3. I'd grunt and press with all my might and eventually have to jab a knitting needle repeatedly into the key pad to make it dial. By 2008, four years into our temporary phone, the disfunction spread to the 6 and the 0 key. Also? The phone only held a charge for a few hours. Lucky for me, I'm terribly forgetful and consistently neglected to put it back on the charger.

I'll never forget the first time I spoke with the coach of the women's national rugby team (15s)--a hard interview to secure due to busy-ness and schedule complications on both sides--and I had to say, "Can I call you back from another phone in a second? This one's about to die..." (She also had some 3's in her number...)

The worst part about this ancient phone was the way its frequency interfered with the wireless internet. We were unable to be online and on the phone at the same time. This was a terribly misfortune for Corey in particular. I'd pick up the phone to call one of our moms and hear him grunting from the basement, his many hours of online South Park viewing interrupted.

Something had to give.

On Wednesday, Corey said something so wonderful I added another column to the reasons I married him. He looked at me, smiled, and said, "You know, I found 2 old Best Buy gift cards. We should used them to get a new phone."

It was like he was a prophet. Of course that was the solution! I stopped in and bought one en route to the eye doctor. Nothing could have been simpler. He hooked it up for me. The 3 works. And the 6. And! It has an advanced signal that doesn't interfere with our wi-fi. It's like I live in a real house with real technological features. I'm on the internet AND listening to voicemail right now. On my speaker phone. From the second headset that came with the phone, so we have one for upstairs and one for downstairs to eliminate the liklihood of my forgetting to charge it.

Now that we have a functional telephone, I can't believe we soldiered on so long with the piece of crap we were using. I wish I could express the magnitude of difference this one small change has made in my life in just a few days. It's like we knew the whole time how badly we needed to make a change, but just didn't have the impetus to do it. Something buzzed in Corey's bonnet this week to spur some change, and I feel stupendously grateful for that.

Call me!