Does That Ring a Bell?

After more than three years, I finally got a new cell phone. It's my first phone with video/camera functions and a QWERTY keyboard. It does not, however, contain the more than 200 contacts I'd acquired over the years.

[Quick story: I went to Tahoe with a friend and his girlfriend, who doesn't snowboard. While we were on the slopes, she borrowed my phone, because she'd lost hers the week before. She did some slipping on the ice...and my cell didn't leave Tahoe.]

I forgot how disorienting it used to be to pick up a phone without caller ID! There's a mix of anxiety and anticipation particular to picking up a mystery phone call.

It got especially interesting a few days ago on my birthday when the anonymous text messages flowed in. I found myself wondering things like, 'Who calls me cutie? And kiddo? Where's an 858 area code?' I realized that I had exactly one cell phone number memorized: my own.

The new phone came with a free app from Verizon that automatically syncs my contact list to their network every night.