Cell phone

For someone supposedly up on technology, I've never cared for gadgets. I don't have a PDA, MP3 player, GPS or, until recently, a cell phone. Apart from the monthly expense, I didn't want to deal with keeping the dumb thing charged or worry about losing it. Despite not wanting a cell, my friend Jen bought me a pay-as-you-go phone for my birthday so I could no longer hide from her. It has actually worked out really well...a cell comes in handy when out on the road. Next year I think I will ask Jen for an iPhone. :)

At some point on the road, my cell phone just died. The screen would light up when the phone was charging but would be blank apart from that. After going without for a week I found a Cingular store in downtown Portland and went to get it fixed. I don't like stores and don't have much faith in the teenagers that work in them but what else could I do? I didn't even know if it could be fixed, being an ultra-cheap model. I walked up to the (I'm guessing high school) girl at the counter and handed it to her. A few seconds later she handed it back to me fixed.

You just need to turn it on.

Apparently the phone is usually on "stand-by". After the battery got drained on the road it switched to "off" and one needs to hold down the red button for 3 seconds to turn it back on.

Teenagers 1 - Ed 0.