Fund-Raising Party and New Phones

Jellies! Size 8!!! Free.

Yesterday my house hosted a massive fund-raising event which started with a garage sale at dawn, evolved into an early lunch and open house, and ended with one of the coolest parties I've ever attended. Our property was like South Austin concentrate. During the day there was acupuncture and hula-hooping in the yard as we enjoyed fresh baked bread and cheese from the farmer's market. Come evening a fire was lit, a keg of homebrew beer was tapped, and live music was played in the garden and in the den. The party was made up of green architects, physicists, college professors, massage therapists, musicians, artists, poets, dancers, circus performers, glass blowers, programmers, wait staff, and canvassers. Local celebrities mingled with California transplants. Old hippies with silver hair recounted the Austin of days past, but for once had a hard time decrying what was "lost," as they were surrounded by friends exchanging heirloom tomato seedlings and kombucha scobies, writing songs, and quietly debating politics around the fire pit.

Flats of veggie seedling we sold at the garage sale

In other news: Darling and I purchased Verizon Droids. I highly doubt this was a cheap option, even though the phones were free with a two year contract. It might have not been the most socially sound option...though I'm really glad we didn't get stuck with AT&T. But oh man, do I love these phones.

I hate to say it, really I do. But they are so freaking cool it's unbelievable. I can't get over it. We can check our e-mail, the weather, call friends and family, AND TAKE PICTURES. I can probably do something with music, also, and I can check out Youtube videos of baby animals whenever I want to. It's like magic.

General Update

The Job Hunt: I put the job hunt on hold after missing a third call from my employer of choice. I applied for about seven jobs with this company, and a couople of days after missing each call the online status report shows one of those jobs being offered to someone else. There's never a message and a return call takes me directly to a machine that does not allow me to leave messages. So, the good news is I'm getting calls. The bad news is so are enough people vying for jobs that the company only offers one call.

Thus the decision to get a cell phone.

The Cell Phone: Having applied and been denied for a cell phone, I have asked Darling to take over this project. Then I spent all of our money on debt.

Health and Dental: After jumping through a million hoops to get financial assistance for medical care, we made an appointment with one of three dentists who accept our insurance. We had to wait three months, but we were looking forward to our appointments on Tuesday. Then on Friday we got a call saying the hygeinist was sick and our appointments had to be rescheduled. They had one appointment Monday (today), and the next appointment would be in May. I couldn't get out of my Monday shift at work, so Darling took that appointment. I do have a ladies appointment this Thursday to look forward to, however.

Resolutions: My knees have hurt since our trek out of town last week, so I've been easy on myself so far as cycling goes. I'm still riding every single day (73 days now), but I've just put on a mile a day this week.

I've been in a car seven times. Recently a boss had an emergency at the cafe and I ended up needing to accept a ride from her. Last week my Mom came into town and I had to give her a ride to her hotel. I accepted a ride home from the hospital after Raja gave birth to Oblio rather than ride my bike across the city at midnight, and then accepted another ride most of the way home from the hospital the next day when I misjudged my timing and couldn't otherwise get to work on time. And I went grocery shopping for the house twice.

I'm vegan on the days I don't think about it. This isn't hard. Sometimes I try and tell myself that dairy is very healthy and it might be a bad idea to bar it from my diet, but then I remind myself that the only time I actually consume dairy is in the form of butter, ice cream, and half-and-half in my coffee. I will say that I'm still putting yogurt in my smoothies, however, and don't intend to stop until I live with more people who eat soy yogurt, because I can't justify just purchasing the tiny containers for myself.

I'm proud of my dedication to keeping track of every penny earned and spent, and will post more on that later. I really need to move onto the next Your Money Or Your Life Step, which involves creating a large wall chart to track progress. Something about that makes me nervous. Actually, I don't feel great about my most recent step, which involves really thinking about personal principles and life goals and such. Need to really work on all that...

Going Cellular

I really, really enjoy not owning a cell phone. Cultivating a lifestyle that does not require constant, instant, or even regular communication has been incredibly rewarding. I could rhapsodize endlessly about the benefits and freedom of demanding one-on-one interactions with my friends and family, but that would depress me. Because last week I decided to get a cell phone.

Not just a single phone for Darling and myself to share, and certainly not one of those pay-as-you go doohickeys I've wasted money on in the past. We're going to get two cell phones and a family plan.

A variety of lifestyle factors, both within and outside my sphere of control, have led me to come to this difficult and painful decision. The first was the increasing difficulty I've had communicating with management and coworkers at both my workplaces. The "party line" phones at my current and previous homes have confused people for years and almost no one leaves a message on the machine. But lately people give up on contacting me without even calling: they only want to communicate by text. Recently I've had issues with people who don't answer their phones at all and only ever read their screens.

Human Resource Departments can't seem to be bothered leaving messages either. It's driving me crazy how often I come home to see the number of somewhere I've applied on the caller I.D., but there's no message and no way to call back.

These obstacles have been in place for years, of course, and they're steadily getting worse as the technology breech between myself and my peers widens. But it was the most basic, ancient argument that finally convinced me that Darling and I need to get a phone:

What if you or your husband are in an accident?

It's very difficult to get stranded in the middle of nowhere without a car. Oh, I've done it more than once, but it wasn't easy and there was always a pay phone nearby. But as Darling and I skirted the country roads south of Austin last weekend, our path lit by the headlights of speeding cars, it occurred to me that our situation could get really bad really quickly. And there wasn't a pay phone for miles.

The final encouragement was my Mom's decision to reclaim her phone bill. That frees up about eighty dollars a month, which will free up plenty of money in our budget for a reasonable family plan.

I'm going all the way with this because in the past Darling and I have tried to compromise by sharing a cheap, practically disposable phone and it was more effort than it was worth. I didn't want to be my husband's secretary and take all his calls for him, especially while I was at work. But he wouldn't bother carrying or answering the phone himself on his days holding it. So we're each going to have one, purchase the most affordable plan, and get in the habit of actually carrying and answering them.

No Credit? Bad Credit.

I applied for a phone plan and got denied.

It never even occurred to me that one could get denied from a cell phone plan. This hit me a lot harder than when, in a fit of desperation, I applied for a health care credit card and that was denied.

Everyone has cell phones. This is America, for goodness sake.

I used to get my annual credit check ever August, but forgot to last year. Concerned about what horrible black marks scarred my not-so-precious credit score, I did some investigating.

And found nothing new. Besides the fact that Compass bank checks my score every week or so.

I took a closer look at familiar information. Remember when I mentioned that my student loans were sold to another company in 2006? Well, that shows up under "potentially negative" on my report.

Four Times.

The details of the loan are straight forward, listing the loan as "paid," rather than, say, "abandoned," or even "sold behind the debtors back." Still, my "paid" loans are registering as "potentially negative" for every year that I was paying them. Same account number, same info, different dates.

Naturally I disputed the second, third, and fourth year of "potentially negative" financial tomfoolery. If I didn't maintain a blog based on my hatred of the credit industry, I could feign surprise. But...yeah. Credit scores are still arbitrary and dumb and damaging.

With my luck, even if I get the excess loan payments removed from my record, I'll have another black mark when the more recent sale of my loan is reported. And then another thumbs-down when I actually pay off my loan next year.

Because the credit industry makes that much sense.

Cell Phone Response

I think my last post about cell phones might have been a little confusing because I forgot to mention that our new technological parasite is not a primary form of communication. It will mostly operate in the same way as a beeper: friends and family will be able to call, and leave a message, and know we will get it as soon as possible - but under no circumstances will Darling and I let it interrupt our current social or professional lives. Unless the message is frantic and involves the word "hospital," we'll wait until we're back to the land line to return the call. And even then, panicked conversations tend to be short. If it turns out we need more minutes for any reason, we can buy them. If it turns out we need more minutes every month, we can look at upgrading to a monthly plan - or ask ourselves if we're abusing the luxury of instant communication and need to cut back.

We purchased a tracphone from Office Depot on sale for $10. We received a $10 coupon with the phone, making it theoretically free. That coupon will come in handy when Darling needs to buy his scientific calculator.

Phone Decision

Darling and I have decided to bite the bullet and buy a "phone in a box," as he puts it. Even though our rent pays for a house line and Internet, it's proven a little disruptive to the house to be totally dependent on it. Too many of our buddies work weird hours and don't have a concept of when would be "appropriate" to call, not to mention my Dad who has a personal penchant for calling between midnight and 1 a.m. "just to check up." In this house, we can't hear the ringing in the bedroom, we don't bother to check messages, and we've basically made it impossible for people to get in touch with us.

Which, frankly, is perfectly fine with me. But that is irresponsible and unfair to my friends and family. And Darling is about to be hunting for internships, so his professional life will be at stake.

Our plan? One phone, no more than 20 minutes a month, no contract, and no frills. Hopefully we'll avoid catching that bizarre social disease that causes victims to answer the technological parasites on buses, in movie theaters, and in the middle of personal conversations.

My Cell Phone Argument

Darling and I made the controversial choice to not own a cell phone early in our marriage, around the same time we decided to eschew television and motor vehicles. This bothers my friends, co-workers, family, and employers to no end. However, I feel that Darling and I are making a rational and adult decision that will enable us to live happier, healthier, and more productive lives. The only downside is that these longer lives will be plagued with increasing numbers of jerks on cell phones.

I would say someone wants to argue this point with me an average of twice a week. The most common and passionate refrain is "what if there is an emergency?"

"What type of emergency?" I ask, "Zombie attack or heart attack?"

"A car accident? What if you are in a car accident?"

I then have to point out that the likelihood of my being in a car accident is slim to none, unless I happen to be given a ride by one of my many friends and family members who have started using their cell phones while driving. Darling and I are also unlikely to be in the middle of nowhere with a broken down car. Not driving pretty much cuts out car-related emergencies.

"What if you are hit by a car?"

"If I am hit by a car, but can still operate a cell phone, I probably don't need to."

"But if you were unconscious and rushed to the hospital, how would they inform Darling?"

This leads the conversation into a strange and terrible world for the cell phone user trying to have this argument with me. Very few people can comprehend that my husband and I are rarely apart, and know where the other is within a few blocks 99% of the time. We are either at work, home, in transit, together, or with friends. We plan our days together and consult each other before making plans. I don't need a cell phone to know where Darling is at any given time. I don't need to call him every 45 minutes to ask "what's up?"

It amazes me how few people can understand that I choose to save a bare minimum of $50 a year simply by planning ahead. Not planning ahead in terms of weeks or months, but by asking my husband "what are you doing today?" In our four years of marriage, there have been four times I can think of that having a cell phone would have made our lives more convenient (well, five times, but we prepared for that by borrowing one from a friend).I think saving $400 over the course of four years was well worth the mild discomfort of not being able to reach him at those times. And each circumstance taught us a lesson, made us stronger people and better mates.

The fact of the matter is that cell phones, like cars, are habit-forming and unhealthy. I don't know how many car accidents are caused every year by people on cell phones, but I do know that they are the biggest threat Darling and I face as pedestrians. They are also the biggest threat to our enjoyment of public spaces: their ringing, beeping, vibrating, and bright screens have interrupted yoga mediation sessions, ballet performances, movies, and countless conversations.

And to what benefit? My friends are increasingly dependent not only on their phones, but the constant connection they afford. One woman I know will be totally fixated on her phone if a text or message is not returned, increasingly agitated until a response is received. Co-workers who forget their phones in the morning can think of nothing else and spend the day borrowing other people's phones in the same way they would beg cigarettes. This dependency, coupled with contracts and monthly payments, does not strike me as "freedom" in any sense of the word. Freedom from planning, long-term thinking, and common courtesy, perhaps.

Every new media changes the function of mankind. It is becoming common knowledge that how we receive information strongly influences how we think. The parts of the brain used to consume print are very different than those used to surf the web. Our brains are constantly developing: new connections are developed and grow strong while others stagnate and weaken. The emerging digital generation is a different type of human than ever seen before: physiologically, emotionally, and intellectually. And from where I'm standing, this culture is dependent, hyperactive, unsustainable, and overwhelmed. Thanks, but no thanks, I'll keep my landline.

Why I don't "Do" Cell Phones

Yesterday I was asked how much Darling and I pay for our land line. The answer is "certainly more than a cave man." In fact, we probably pay more for our package than most people pay for their basic cell phone service. Why do we do this very un-frugal thing?

1. Darling and I are total web addicts. There are "better deals," I think, if you get the Internet bundled with cable, but we don't even own a television. So an Internet/phone service combo is the best for us right now.

2. There are a number of unexplored health and environmental issues being raised about cell phones, including the latest and most terrifying decreasing bee population. Something is going wrong with our crops, people, and I don't want to be part of the problem.

3. The cultural effects of instant, real-time communication are both great and, well, annoying. In fact, it's becoming an unnoticed workers rights issue. I think employers are really beginning to take for granted the idea that employees can be reached at any time for minor details and emergencies alike. I believe in the 8-hour day, 40-hour week, including lunch breaks. The idea that people can be called at home, on vacation, or other times that should be reserved for family, recreation, and relaxation disgusts me.