As a little kid, my memory for phone numbers was phenomenal. I knew all of my parents friend's numbers by heart. My father, who is lousy at things like that, used to say "can I please have Mr. Green's number?" or "what's Mr. Bernstein's number, I forget." My mother utilized my memory in a similar fashion.
All that changed a little over four years ago. See, that's when I got my first cell phone. So began the era of speed-dial and voice recognition dialing, and ended the era of memorizing phone numbers.
And so, slowly the brain cells involved in phone number memorization have shriveled up and died. In truth, I never missed them. Till today.
It was very sudden, very tragic. Out of the blue, my phone, which has been pretty sick for a while, breathed it's last. Picture it. Me, SD, sitting there phone-less. I hope you're shuddering at the thought.
I wasn't completely unprepared, I did have an old phone, which I was actually able to get working pretty quickly. But as I turned it on, the grim reality hit me.
I lost everything. Saved texts, pictures, and most importantly...500 contacts! I wanted to call my friend and vent about it, but I realized that I don't even know my closest friend's phone numbers.
So I'm seeing the flip side of our technological goodness. I mentioned my devastating loss to an older woman at work, and she was dumbfounded. "You mean you don't have a paper address book where you write people's numbers in?"
A week ago, I would have laughed at her. I would have told her that it's the new world, the new generation. I would have told her that we do things differently in this century. But now I get it. Technology isn't all good.
Two important notices: to those who know me, and know my cell phone number, please gimme a call or a text. I don't have your number anymore.
And, ve'hameivin yavin, Chava Yitty will be having a levaya as soon as I check if the sprint store can do an autopsy and glean some info from her. ;-)
29 comments:
How tragic, I hope you get over it soon;)
Lol sounds like the rest of us!
My father used to deliver groceries when he was a kid and still remembers everyone's phone numbers and addresses from the good old days.
With my crackberry and gps, its fuhgettaboudit where I'm concerned!
I was like that, too. Now I know about 5-6 phone numbers, and that's my limit. If my phone died, c"v, it would be a very, very bad thing.
Insp- you, m'dear have not texted me your number yet. Oh and there are a few other numbers you may or may not be able to give me.
Maidel- LOL? We're talking about the loss of a very close friend of mine.
And that's really boring. You must name your GPS and phone. Lemme know what you pick. ;-)
Scrap- it is tragic. What a good dan lekaf zechus story, huh? There can't be less than 20 people waiting for me to call them at the moment. I sincerely hope they don't think I'm just avoiding them. (Even if I am...;))
Please guys, learn your lesson from me. Write down your important numbers!
Lenny was a horrible looking razor (the phone not the actual blade), but I realized it was whats on the inside that counts, after it died. Since then I got back all my phone numbers from people, but the pictures are gone forever.
MIM- niiice! So how'd he get to be named lenny? Just struck you?
The pictures are mostly not an issue, cuz I had a memory card. There were only a few that were on the phone, and I don't think they were too major. It's the saved texts and the numbers that are upsetting me.
I seriously hope ppl aren't mad that I'm not in touch, specially the people whom I promised I'd get back to.
you don't have your contacts backed up on the main server? oh, that's right-you're not Verizon
:)
but you should see if Sprint has something like that
FCG- what is it about verizon customers that they are so verizonocentric? :-p
I tried verizon for a year, but it really didn't live up to the hype. And if I would tell you the awesome plan I have on sprint I don't think any verizon customers would be gloating...
Back to backup assistant: I actually have a printout of my contacts which I backed up right before I cancelled verizon. I have an awful feeling that it has been thrown out but...
Also, it is a year old. I probably only had about 400 contacts at that point...
I am hoping to retrieve them from my phone...I'll keep you posted...
sounds awfully familiar....(P.S., my local sprint store has amazing customer service and after about 3 hours and a huge headache I had a brand new phone and all my contacts switched over)
I've heard that Alzheimer's has become more common since ppl stopped using their brains as much:)
I hope that your new phone will be bigger and better. May it accompany you to wonderful places, and enable you to talk (and text) wonderful people.
Rikki- thanks for the chizuk. Not.
Maybe the store near MY house has good service.
Anon-this phone is bigger. :-( And that's where the problems start. It's most definitely NOT better tho.
I had the same thing happened- I knew all the phone numbers and birthdays by heart.
The birthdays I still know, but phone numbers....chaval...
Save numbers to your SIM card, not your phone. That way, they're easily transferable.
SD- My contacts are saved separately on my phone, memory card and my computer. so the possibility of loosing my info is a lot lower. (I'll admit, it is a hassle to sync them all periodically. But compared to your hassle right now?)
Chanie- The only problem with saving contact to the SIM cards is that they have very limited capacity. So they don't work for people with a lot of contacts.
Two things - get a new phone that you can sync with computer (you don't need a smartphone for that).
Second is what kind of phone did you have and how do you know it died? I've had some experience with both getting phones back to life (long after I gave up on it already) and restoring data from semi-died phones (like my brother's one which happened to swim in orange juice and been hit over a car dashboard many times after that)...
whatever, i never had a problem with service with Verizon. when my bill came with $40 in data charges, i called them and explained that i wasn't using my internet on my phone and they took it off.
the only issues i had were with my phone itself, and that's because i bought a lousy Razr
FCG - one problem I'd had with Verizon is that they highly modify your phone firmware and you can't use internet normaly, you're locked to their services instead of being able to just upload ringtones or new themes (at least it was like that when I was interested in Verizon).... Besides that my ex-boss is still having problems with reception in Queens and Sprint has faster internet so I'd choose Sprint over Verizon.
But I am lucky iPhone owner so no complaints at all :) Besides listed on my blog
500 contacts! Goodness gracious. I sure hope you (or Sprint actually) managed to revive the phone. And that's about as much sympathy you'll be getting from me :-P.
Chanie- sprint and verizon don't have sim cards. :-(
I know, when my old at&t phone died it was not an issue...
GW- (do I know you? Am I sposta guess?) I did back them up to my memory card a bunch of times, but I don't think they're there?!?
BTS- erm, it's pretty dead, but if you can tell me how to un-dead it I'll be eternally grateful. It's a sanyo katana I think DLX. Although she was only a year old, chava yitty was wise beyond her years. She had been put to more use than my mother's phone gets in ten years... ;-)
If you think she can be brought back to life please email me.
And I ain't buying a new phone. I'm using my friends horrible old phone and I hate it but I'm not eligible for an upgrade anytime soon.
FCG- razrs have got to be the worst phones ever made. Number 2 for me was a hot pink razr, and until now it was by far my worst. My replacement phone is giving the razr a real run for her money.
About verizon service, the cell phone service was ok, but the customer service was lousy. Part of my monthly routine was calling and spending half hour getting ridiculous charges off of my bill.
And chava yitty used to have a setting to roam always, so when I used it I had perfect reception no matter where I went. And sprint is just so much cheaper...
BTS- iphone? Everyone is shocked that I don't have one, but aside from the great deal I have with sprint, I like having my touch separate from my phone. :-)
HS- yeah...and I don't even know people! LOL, in truth I think each and every contact makes the loss more painful.
I haven't had a spare minute to go to the sprint store, but when I do I'll let you know... Sigh
Oh and I think this deserves a lot of sympathy, thank you very much. I think it's the worst thing that's ever happened in my life. :-(
i had three razrs and four krazrs, all within one year.
then i got LG Voyager and i've been really happy with it. supposedly Verizon might be coming out with the Iphone one day-that's going to be my next phone
SD - check your email
FCG - i doubt they'd come out with iPhone this year. Rumors aren't that strong...
How did your phone get a name?
FCG- why the- did you get the krazr after all your issues with the razr?
And yeah, my friend has the voyager. It's COOL. :-)
BTS- thanks. :-)
EN- firstly, welcome back! I missed you!
Basically, chava yitty is a mythical woman that I've invented and I'm forever imitating her. And so basically, my phone struck me as having a similar personality to this lady, and her looks also reminded me of chava yitty...so I named her chava yitty. My new phone might become a breindel or perhaps a kreindy...we'll see.
O wait, I have a suggestion. If the people really want to talk to you, they will call you eventually. Then you can save their numbers again when that happens. And if they don't call you, why call them?
thanks for the reminder. just backed up my measly 250 contacts on t-mobile's website
anyone else who has t-mobile, i strongly advise that you take advantage of this
:)
CIB- Yeah, cept that is the most depressing part of all...watching how my social life has decreased so much since I have lost all my contacts... :(
Thinking- Yeah. Rub it in. Thanks.
SOooooo what's the story? You've never replied to my last email...
:P
how's the newest member of the family doing (kreindy? breindy? - can never keep track of them, though i personally prefer guy names :))
Thinking- I do to. I'd love to call my new phone Joel, cuz it SO fits but it's pink so that wouldn't work...
For now she's big stinker. We'll see if she gets a real name eventually...
SD - Oh, I know I will be, however, a lot of what you describe is how I am normally...it'll just get worse.
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