Les Bonnes Choses

After nearly four months here in Chicago, I got around to getting a cell phone -- or, rather, getting my existing cell phone to do something (incidentally, if you have a Motorola V360, a weekend, and alot of faith in me, I'll unlock your phone for you). I did a fair amount of reading of reviews on wireless providers because I like to turn every purchase over $20 into some kind of research project, and concluded that T-Mobile's pay as you go plan would probably be the best deal for my rather infrequent cell phone usag-- SPEAK OF THE DEVIL!!!

Why did I use that clever writer's convention to indicate an interruption? I'm glad you asked! First, it was because I'm a clever writer. Second, and more importantly, it's because something just happened that directly pertains to what I wanted to write about. I will preface this by solemnly swearing that I am not making this up: I just now received a phone call on my cell phone from some roofing company (at least, that's what I believe they sell, as their representatives pronounce their product "ruff") looking for a "Mrs. Max". It is the third such call that phone has received. Other misdirected messages include some texts that confirm the employment and job details for some guy who I believe was supposed to set up an auditorium (and is now presumably back on the unemployment line), a text about whether I received "the email", and a few calls from Capital One regarding a fantastic job opportunity.

With T-Mobile's prepaid service, I pay $.10 per minute for each call or sent text message, and $.05 for each received text. When I was signing up, I was asked what area code I wanted. Not having a preference, the T-Mobile rep gave me a (773) number because "it's the most popular" (it had never before occurred to me that area codes had such a rigid social structure). As misdirected calls have now eaten up twice as much of my phone balance as have calls that I have intentionally made, I now wonder at the wisdom of acquiescing. Incidentally, now that you know my area code (773), if you're willing to put in a little bit of effort, you can figure out the remaining 7 digits of my number, which I have obfuscated by decomposing it into its prime factors: 3² • 29 • 31 • 1,009.

I suppose I have just guaranteed that I will only get calls from a very peculiar segment of the population.