Instinct

The hullabahloo of the holidays is behind me, and I am left with a blur of memories, a few more pounds, a messy house, and .... my most favoritist gift of all, ever!!!!! (well, other than the heartwarming moments spent with family and friends, that is).

OK. So the truth is, I'm a gadget guru. Always have been. It may have started when I got two Panasonic donut radios for Christmas when I was in the fifth grade. Or perhaps when Carol Jean purchased a Fisher stereo receiver with separate turntable and kicka__ speakers! (I know they're to blame for my post 40 hearing loss.) Seriously. No one else in my inner circle had an ala carte stereo system at the time - one that played FM stations no less. (Because who even listened to FM stations back then? Well, we did.)

We also got a microwave soon after they were released, and of course when I studied in Europe, I just had to have a Walkman (actually it was some European brand knockoff with a hideous brown Naugahyde case and it weighed about ten pounds, but still - it had relatively small headphones!) And when I went off on my own I invested in a CD player (my very smart cousin Scott said they'd never catch on...HA!), a VCR, a video camera when Ry was born, soon followed by an old school Mac, a Palm Pilot (or two), several IPods (including a video model), a digital movie camera, a DVR cable box, wireless networking, high speed router, a Kitchen Aid mixer ... so you get the picture, right?

Well, all this gadget guru-ness somehow passed me by when it came to my cell phone selection. In fact, I've only had two cell phones in ten years. My most recent was a flip up, gorgeous blue, with speaker phone ability, but I did have to manually extend the antenna - to the snickers of a few of my previous co-workers (you know who you are....LAURA!) .... but it got the job done.

So get to the point already.... right? Well, one of Ryan's most coveted items on his holiday list was a new cell phone - the Samsung Instinct. So I wandered unsuspectingly into the Sprint store with him (and Grandma in tow as she was the official gift giver of phone) over the holidays. I was totally minding my own business when he showed me "the phone"..... I looked at it....and that was it. I was in love. (To those who know me, it was kinda like when I locked eyes with Fabio years ago at the bookstore when he was signing...who cares what he was signing? He could have signed a banana peel - - but that's another post).

Seriously. The Samsung Instinct. Have you seen this phone? It's definitely inspired by the IPhone, yet it has its own distinct personality. It has a touch screen for starters. It's sleek, small, black and shiny. Yet it has weight and it vibrates in the coolest way as it performs its functions (unless you turn that part off).

Do you want to know what I can do with this phone? No? Too bad. I can text. I can give it voice commands. I can say Chinese food and it pulls up every Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood and beyond, and it will give me directions to all of them. I can ask it to "call home" "call Mom" "call John" "call Ryan" "call Anyone Who Will Answer!" and it politely asks me to confirm each time: "Did you say, call home?" "Yes! Yes I did!" And it does.

It takes pictures. And sends pictures. And takes video. And plays music. I can watch TV on it. I can listen to online radio on it. I can surf the web and check my e-mail (both home and work accounts!). At the touch of a button I can see what the weather is like in Springboro, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Iowa, Detroit! I can even see the weather radar! It has GPS, so it can take me from here to wherever I want to go, no questions asked!! I'm FREE! Well, it probably asks me to confirm where I want to go, but no matter. About the only thing is doesn't do is the dishes!

Oh wait, I just didn't have that function turned on.

Anyway, it's amazing, and I feel amazing carrying it. No antenna to whip up anymore....and no snickers. Just looks of awe from my fellow gadget gurus.