A Hidden Admission
Of submission… to a Nokia. 6010!
I have a wonderful, amazing, beautiful, kind girlfriend Kelly. I’ve had 1.5 years with her, with more to come—MORE TO COME! In a life filled with impermanence and uncertainty, moving from place to place and career to career, it’s great to have something solid.
Solid like a brick.
But truth be told, there’s another relationship in my life. I never meant things to be this way, and I don’t know where things will go from here. But I live, travel, and talk using my old Nokia 6010. We’ve been together for almost 10 years.
My first cell phone was a Nokia—a blue 8210. Since then, I’ve had a heinous history with phones. Well, not so much as phones, but any pocketable devices: phones, wallets, keys. Though Kelly is thin, I just thank God that she’s not small enough to fit into any of my pockets
I broke every rule of my upbringing to purchase my favorite phone — a sleek, white, high-gloss flip phone while I was in Japan. There were dozens of similar flip phones offered for 1 yen; and every ounce of my upbringing told me: take the deal! But as it is with love at first site, I fell for her pearly surface and clean lines. After a day of trying to shake the feeling, I returned and paid 7500 yen ($75) for the phone. And after a year in Tokyo… not a scratch on her surface.
I didn’t think I could do that. I didn’t think I would do that.
When I returned to the states, I had to package up my favorite phone. I didn’t have anyone to call or text, phones didn’t have internet access, and the return to my home soil reinvigorated my thrifty side. I found a discount at Walmart for a Nokia pre-paid phone—grey, brick-shaped, sitting like a lump in my pocket. I pushed on with the “deal” and bought into their “Gold Plan” — 1000 minutes @ 10 cents a minute, good for a year.
It was an arrangement of convenience that I’d often try to escape.
My first foray: the iPhone. I’m not one to latch on to trends, but I wanted to build an iPhone app for a deals website that I had created. At the time, that actually required to purchase an iPhone. So with a heavy heart, I bought an iPhone. Sleek, beautiful, and “smart”. None of those traits prevented me from dropping it, nor from dropping it again. Add “robust” to the list of iPhone features—it was only after 1.5 years and the 12th time I dropped it that the screen cracked and I couldn’t use it any longer.
So then I recharged my balance.
My second attempt at a smart phone was a Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V. We never really saw eye-to-eye; she was thicker than my iPhone, the OS was slower and less sleek, and the apps were not as good. But I did get Internet tethering to work, and her price couldn’t be beat—$35/month for more data than I could use. Alas, she and my wallet must have hooked up and left me on a gloomy Friday morning, as I never saw either of them again.
And waiting for me, still with a battery charge and a “Gold” balance, was my Nokia.
And so we’ve grown into each other. Here we are, 7 years later, and I’m happy with my grey, brick-shaped phone. No matter how many times I drop her, her clock keeps ticking, her ringer keeps ringing, and her battery maintains her charge.
Nokia, I have been tamed.
