My Work Cell Phone

Yesterday, after nearly two months of employment at my new job, I was finally issued my work cell phone. I was so excited, I practically clapped my hands and jumped up and down! Upon being handed the phone, however, my enthusiasm dwindled. Sadly, my work cell appears to be some sort of an artifact from the late 1990's. Now, to its credit, the phone is indeed a "new" phone. It has never been used before, and my guess is that it has been sitting in its box in the bottom of the IT department's filing cabinet for the past decade.

The thing feels like a brick. It has a collapsible antenna which I am certain I will have to extend to the full four inches if I care to get any reception. Every time I talk on that phone, I am going to look like I just stepped out of Season One of "Friends". I might as well grow my hair out into the "Rachel" and pull on some flared jeans and a baby tee. Seriously.

This evening, I was at Katie and Ryan's and I was trying to figure out how to set the ring tone. Ryan suggested that I "go back in time", since the current Nextel help line probably doesn't offer customer support on my particular model any more. Ryan also suggested that I try throwing the phone against the wall "because I bet it won't break". I reminded Ryan that it was a work phone and I really shouldn't abuse it. This fact seemed to be of little consequence to Ryan, so I quickly put my phone back in my purse before it could become the subject of any durability experiments. (Please note that when I got home this evening, I googled the model of my phone and saw that many reviewers had indeed thrown it against a wall, and it had survived without any problems. In fact, one review called the phone "The Hummer of Cell Phones" because of its indestructibility.)

Anyway, if you see a social worker climbing into her 1999 Corolla with her 1999 cell phone, don't be alarmed, people. You haven't entered into a time warp. It's just me, living my glamorous professional life.