Yesterday was an interesting day, but it all began on Thursday when I noticed on my AT&T bill that I had completed my 24th payment, with 6 payments to go, on my 2-year-old cell phone. I knew 24 months was some kind of milestone, so I logged onto AT&T and began chatting with a representative asking about the significance of 24 months. Apparently, I was unable to frame the question in a way that the rep understood, so after about 20 minutes, he asked if he could call me. I said OK. However, when he called, his accent was so thick that I was unable to understand him. I'm old and kind of hung up on the language I speak. He told me to hang up and he would have someone else call me right away. The same guy called back 10 minutes later and said he would transfer me to his supervisor. While the supervisor spoke much better english, he didn't know the answer to my question.

So the supervisor transferred me to someone else; apparently someone else back in the States judging by her ability to speak the language. After a long discussion about new plans and phone upgrades, it was clear to me that she too did not understand my question. She transferred me to another person who, after several minutes, told me I had been transferred to the wrong department and offered to transfer me again. I hung up.

Yesterday Nancy and I drove to the local AT&T store so I could (1) pay off what I still owed on my cell and (2) ask my question face to face. The answer: after 24 months I was elegible for an upgrade. Pretty simple, huh? After paying off my cell we started talking about upgrades and AT&T cell plans. New phones for Nancy and me cost over $1400 with a required purchase of insurance at $24 a month! Whew! Their plan for 2G data came to $80 a month plus taxes and fees. We said we'd think about it, and drove to the T-Mobile store.

The T-Moble plan was 1 cell for $700, 2nd cell free, and $90 a month; taxes, fees, and insurance included. Unlimited data, text, and talk. It helped that we are over 55. Needless to say we now have T-Mobile cell phones. Same phone numbers, of course.

After that we drove to Sam's and Barnes & Noble looking for a book on setting up all the stuff on our phones, but none could be found. So we went to lunch at Subway. I took the picture above after lunch. We spent the rest of the day playing with our phones.