this mommy is a dummy!

I was texting my kids before many of my lady friends had cell phones. I even know how to use T-9. (i think that's what it was called). I am one of those women who says regularly, " How did I ever manage to raise those first two kids without a cell phone?"

Since my first cell phone and subsequent texting lessons, I have never looked back! I love the instant communication any time of the day or night that is offered by text messaging. I love being able to tell my kids I love them whenever I think of it and if I see something funny or hear some great news I can MASS TEXT the whole gang of them! It's a miracle of modern technology; one more way for mothers to mother.

I carried a cute, red Blackberry for years and never worried about the cost of texting. I had a plan that was grandfathered from 1998 that had unlimited texting (along with per second billing and free long distance-basically the most awesome plan ever!) I have kept in touch with my family when I travel without ever a worry about "roaming charges". I never really understood the dreaded ROAMING having never really experienced it first hand.

All that changed when I got my super awesome amazing i-phone 4! Now don't get me wrong, I

my i-phone. It does things a phone should never really be able to do (which is SUPER AWESOME!!) BUT to be quite honest it took me a while to figure out the texting. I have big chunky fingers and the touch screen is hard to use. The spell checker changes words sometimes like "clothes" to "clever" but I've been able to manage the little inconveniences because the phone is so great.

However, when I got my i-phone I had to change plans-my old plan from 1998 would not transfer to the new technology so I had to buy a new plan that had "data" (whatever the heck that is...). So I bought data and carried on. The lady at the store assured me that I would still be able to text as much as I wanted. What she didn't tell me was that when I travel, it probably wouldn't be the same as my old phone plan.

I got my phone bill last week. It had all the charges for the last month including a "little extra" from my recent trip to Hawaii.

After speaking with a number of people about my situation (I never told anyone it was actually ME that made this dumb mistake) I understand the thing about "roaming data" charges at a very rudimentary, basic level.

Basically, it means that all those goofy texts (AND PHOTOS) that I sent to my five children (and their spouses) over 10 days in Honolulu added up to about the same amount of $$$ I have in my sock drawer that I was saving for a special prize for myself.

Another lesson learned.

I guess there's always next summer to get the Margaritaville D1000. (sigh)