Tether

Having a new long-distance relationship in my life has given me a new relationship with my cell phone.  Mr. NBT and I send text messages frequently.  We also use the camera feature on our phones to snap pictures of our surroundings and send them off to each other.  Indeed, those pictures are worth 1000 words.  I'll snap a photo of sailboats at the dock and college students leaning against them, waiting for wind; he'll send back a picture of an empty coffee cup and a breakfast plate with a napkin crumpled up on it.  It's a great way to capture place and scene that you can't really do with a text message, or even with voice.  And it just takes a moment to send a reminder that I'm thinking of him, and that I want to show him the world I live in.  We talk on the phone, too, of course.  I'm not sure I've ever talked with someone daily like this.  If I did, it was a long time ago. 

So we got our cell phone bills the other day.  Oh my.  Besides the unexpected magnitude of the bills, there was verifiable, searchable documentation of our pattern of communication.  How often do we talk?  For how long?  Exactly how many text messages do we send and receive on a typical day?  I am too sheepish to report the results here. 

Comments

Hopefully the two of you are on the same type of plan that allow you unlimited calls from the same provider. If not, can you get that. What about an internet chat program? There should be ways to cut down your expenses on this.

[a]

I agree it's quite strange to see your relationship laid out in such practical measures. I felt similarly when I had emails sorted by sender, the "him" file.

[turboglacier]

This is so cute it makes me want to barf just ever so slightly.

Many of us are looking forward to meeting Mr. NBT.

[Mr. Witchirfay]

Indeed many of us are looking forward to Mr. NBT's unveiling.

Also, please post pic of empty coffee cup and crumpled napkin. Your fans want to be there with you too.

[bill]

What Turbo said (I'm smiling). However, no interest here in pictures of crumpled anythings.

[Kat]

Try Skype...it's an internet telephone connection that's the same quality as a regular phone, except that I heard it's free (& you can use a web camera as well). Apparently a lot of international companies use it.

[AdriftAtSea]

When Gee was 3000 miles away, in Seattle, we used IM, e-mail, a predecessor of Skype, and we still had combined phone bills over $600 per month. Long distance relationships can be expensive, even if you've taken measures to minimize those costs.

Unlimited cell-to-cell calling via the same cellular provider is a good start, as is signing up for the largest IM/SMS messaging package your provider offers.

Skype is good, but requires you to be at a computer or where some sort of broadband internet connection exists...which is more probably for NBT than you, since most waterfronts are less than electronic friendly. :D

[AdriftAtSea]

UGH, the first graf above should read and a predecessor of Skype.