I might be the last person I know to own a camera phone, and as groundbreaking as that technology is I can’t imagine why in the world I would ever need it/use it.
However, the first words out of my mouth this morning at work were,
“Hey guys, I got a camera phone!”
Damn it, I had caved and there was little to no response.
What kind of reaction was I expecting exactly? The movie clap that starts off slow and ends in a round of applause, hoots, finger in the mouth whistles, ticker tape, or a spotlight and tap dance solo complete with jazz hands?
I felt like Romy White in Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion:
“If anyone needs to make a call… I have a cell phone.”
Only it was more like: “If anyone needs to take a picture… I have a camera. It’s on a phone. It’s a phone with a camera INSIDE!”
Memories of my beeper/pager-less childhood came flooding back to me.
All of my best friends had them. I could send 80087355 (Boobless), but never receive it. No one could even tell me to go to 7734 (hell, upside down). I thought that if my parents really 4’d (loved) me, they’d buy me one.
My dad kept his old beeper in the top drawer of his dresser and I’d “borrow” it when I went out on the town (across the street to the dollar movie theater). I clipped it on my belt loop hoping for a miracle, but since it was no longer connected to a network I never ever got a page.
There was a button you could push on the outside to make it vibrate, but that wasn’t fooling anyone.
Luckily, no one ever asked to see it. But that’s because I had one friend and no one wanted to talk to us anyway because we smoked cigarette butts we found in the movie theater parking lot.
Ah, the wonder years.
Hahahaha. You can’t even buy a phone anymore without a camera. Well you can, but it is hard. It seems to be just a standard piece they put in now, even thouhg you can barely see a thing with 1-2 megapixels in such a small space. Where I work, I see many people just post images of their weeni.
Beepers were SO COOL. My mom had one for work and I would wear it for her and tell her if she was paged. I felt SO IMPORTANT.
Hahahaha!
I used to type labels for my mom’s files on a typewriter and I would do it really slowly because my slave wages were 2/hr.
I had a PAYING JOB and no beeper back then. I could just spit.
April! I used to read your blog a million years ago before you decided to stop writing. Anyways, if you don’t mind. It’s nice to read you again.
This is Carolina.
also, I have a blog too, but I think only my mom reads it.
http://www.tonightwillbefine.blogspot.com
I remember you, Carolina. It’s been a while!
Tell your mom to move over while I read you, too
i would like to share the secret to the 80087355 trick on the calculator. you have to enter the numbers with a lot of flourish while you say it.
“dolly parton weighed 69 pounds and that was 2 2 2 much! She took 51 pills for eight days (when you say ‘for’, you have to nonchalantly press the X sign) and she was…”
then you hit enter, turn the calculator upside down and yell
“boobless!”
…thank you