No more foil!
It has happened.
“What???” Mehdi, my friend looked at me with dismay as we waited out a sudden rainstorm together. Underneath the shelter of a bridge that crossed a small Belgian canal we had parked our bikes in order to try to stay dry. We were dry enough that Mehdi was able to pull out his iPod nano in order to begin listening to some tunes. As I mentioned that I didn’t have an iPod he looked at me and exclaimed, “What? But you are from America and I am from Afghanistan! How is it that I have an iPod an you do not? I thought everyone in America has one!”
“Well I think I’m the last American without one,” I replied.
And we both laughed about it.
But it was true, most of my friends had the little electronic device practically glued to their very beings, unable to turn on a car without first plugging in their own personal music player. I had resisted the urge to spend a few hundred dollars on a music container that I would inevitably drop, because I already had a hard enough time keeping punks from breaking into my car and stealing my CD player, much less something even more valuable.
Skip forward five months. January 2009.
I loose the antenna to my cell phone. My ghetto, no email, no frills, no nothing cell phone now can barely get reception. To make matters worse I’m in L.A. and I have AT&T (L.A. + AT&T = hardly any reception). I was desperate to send out texts and meet with people I hadn’t seen in ages. So, I dug around in my purse, finally finding a scrap of goldish aluminum foil. I stuck it in where the antenna should be, and magically three bars of reception appeared.
When I got back home, my friend Anthony looked at my phone and said, “You must either be black or Mexican because no white person would carry that thing around.” Anthony is black, so apparently that makes his statement a little less politically incorrect.
I knew I couldn’t go on living with ghetto rigged poor reception forever, constantly scraping around for pieces of foil and cramming it into my phone, just to make a call. This strain on my already pathetic attempts at socialization through cellular means coupled with the desire to be able to take pictures and blog while hiking the PCT lead me to one conclusion. I NEEDED to get an iPhone.
After a seven month painful wait (in attempts to save a few data plan bucks, and get a newer model) I finally purchased one!!!!
I’m already addicted. To every part of the phone. The texting, the camera, the applications, the Facebook for iPhone. I also realized, that having the iPhone also meant that I have a roundabout sort of iPod, and as much as I hate to say it, I love it. I had never jumped on a trampoline with tunes flowing in from some ear buds before, the world is a joyus place when the two are combined. I’ve found that driving a car while being able to listen to This American Life, is a delight. I finally understand iPod people, I understand.
So once I had purchased the iPhone of course I immediately had to buy some protectors for the darn thing. But I couldn’t buy something boring and black. The only way I would buy something like boring is if it is water/weather resistant, for when I hike (I’m on the lookout for a good one), but for everyday use I need something that will brighten things up. So I found a clear protector for the front and a skin for the back at Gelaskins (skin by Jen Lobo).
But since I’m clumsy and love to throw all kinds of things in my bag I have a “case” to offer extra protection. It’s the HOLGY camera camera case by HINÉ on Etsy.com. It was given to me by Katey, who is a propriater of all things handmade, when I was working for her last year. I keep my phone in this anytime I leave the house.
Now you may say this is all good fun. But how am I planning on blogging in the wilderness with an iPhone that can barely stay charged more than a day? I don’t always plan on having reception, but whenever I run across it I will have a handy dandy solar charger and adapters so I can plug in an iPhone (and a camera battery charger). I’m planning on buying one from Solio. Surely if they can withstand the arctic then can withstand a few months in back country.
I have found many applications that will help my phone blogging experience a delight, but I will go into that later.
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