Why No Cell Phones??

Okay, so we're getting a lot of grief over us not having cell phones anymore. Well, here's my response...who needs them! Since my mom works for Sprint, we got a huge discount on our cell phones. Her company was making some changes and our plan was going to change drastically and cost a lot more. Plus, we weren't getting very good service in Hot Springs anyway. So, we made a call to Sprint. They said that since we were on the edge of a "dead zone" that they would let us out of our contract. "Great" we thought now we have to get new phones and get set up with a new carrier...joy.

We thought we'd take a few weeks off from being accessible 24/7 and surprise, surprise, we found out that we liked not having them. It's great not having so many interruptions to life. Shawn and I talk a lot more especially in the car where before we were making lots of calls then. Some people still complain that they can't get a hold of us. (aren't cell phones for my convenience, not theirs?) Another point to my argument is that no one tries to reach us at home. Here's a great sample conversation....

dude-"Hey Shawn, I really needed to talk to you today. It was very important and I couldn't reach you anywhere!"

Shawn-"Oh, sorry about that. I would have liked to talked to you too. Did you try me at home?"

dude-"Well...no"

Shawn-"Sorry, but I do always check my messages at home and work and I didn't get one from you today. You should have left me one saying you were looking for me and I would have called you right back."

It's hilarious to me because very few people actually call us at home. I guess the possibility of us not being there, readily available as with cell phones deters folks from calling us. This tells me that what they had to say wasn't really that "important" to begin with. The fact is...cell phone users aren't really as accessible as they would like to think. Many of my friends have cell phone and never answer them...they just screen calls and call people back when they feel like it. To me, that's worse than just not having one. At least we answer the phone when people call. Anyway, I just got all worked up over this again and I didn't mean to.

So I would like to challenge anyone reading to go cell-less for a day or even a week. Just see what it's like, your "extra" time will amaze you.