Distractions

I think I'm making real progress on the health front. I made it through a choir sectional rehearsal last night (but left before the main rehearsal because the voice was gone), and then I slept without medication last night and didn't wake up in the morning coughing. I did have a few nighttime coughing spells, but it seems like now the coughing is more of a reflex or even a habit than a real need. It feels weird to be almost back to normal again, like I'd forgotten what that feels like.

However, I'm not making progress on the work front. That writing binge I was talking about? Hasn't happened. On Tuesday, I read through the rest of what I'd written, did some re-plotting because I realized I'd gone down a rabbit hole, then did some serious cutting to what I'd most recently written and planned the next scene. Yesterday, not much happened. I got off schedule in the morning, then got sidetracked by some business stuff and some things I needed to think about for my trip next week, and finally got around to working just before I had to leave for children's choir. I mostly rewrote the last scene before my re-boot, then did a little more planning. It was almost like I was afraid to go back to writing new stuff. Today I will make myself dig in and get on it.

One of the distractions was that I've realized I probably need to get a new cell phone, and since the main time I use my cell phone is when I travel, now would be a good time. The one I have is barely holding a charge anymore, and they recently sent me a note saying my phone would no longer support text or data services (not that it was ever much good at data services -- it sort of did it, but it was such a pain to do that I almost never used it for that purpose). The phone is six years old, which is a lifetime in technology years. Now, though, I need to figure out which direction to go. I know a lot about cellular telecommunications from my PR days. I did PR for Ericsson, mostly on the network side, but since I did trade show media relations I did deal with devices and some of the very early prototypes of the Internet-capable smartphones. And I did the PR launch of PrimeCo, which is now Verizon. But although I can tell you how the stuff works, I'm not sure what would be the best for me, especially since so much has changed.

I seldom leave the house and I mostly use my cell phone for long-distance, since that's part of the plan. I use it when traveling, mostly to let my parents know I made it safely, and then occasionally for logistics planning when meeting up with friends when I'm out and about or when I'm at conventions or conferences. And then there's having it in case of emergency. I've seldom used the text messaging feature, though I do like the text notifications from airlines when I'm traveling. But it would be nice to be able to send and receive e-mail from a mobile device and maybe have some Internet access without lugging around a computer. I could see where having e-reader capability might be nice. I don't much care about a camera or being able to listen to music on it. But since my usage is so sporadic, I don't know that I'm willing to pay the full-on data plan prices. I wonder if you can get that sort of thing pay-as-you-go.

And when I ask people for recommendations, it does seem almost like religion, with real emotional bonds to service providers or manufacturers or else antipathy to service providers or manufacturers. I've been with AT&T forever (it started as a work account because of the Ericsson connection, and AT&T was pretty much required because they used Ericsson's network equipment, and you had to have an Ericsson phone in the Ericsson trade show booth) but am not under contract, so I can change providers. AT&T is handy because my parents also have it, so we can call within the network without using up minutes. Not that using up minutes is an issue for me. I think I have about a zillion rollover minutes right now. Most of the time, my phone lives in the bottom of my purse and I have to remember to charge it and turn it on when I go out.

Since it's a nice day, I may hike up the hill to the AT&T store and do some research, maybe hint that I'm thinking of changing carriers and see what they'll do for me. It's also fun to scare/impress the sales guys with my technical knowledge.