the underwear drawer

and then these bullies pushed me down and stepped on my glasses

Usually the streets are pretty empty when I walk to the subway station each morning, so it should have been OK when, as I was crossing the street, my cell phone case slipped off the waistband of my pants and fell on the floor. I have dropped this phone many many times, but it has held up quite well, so I wasn't worried about that part. Only what happened after that is: a car came along. There were no other cars on the road at 5:30 in the morning, but there, suddenly, was one. And like something out of a movie, where the main character (a lovable loser no doubt, perhaps played by Steve Carrell), is shown to be having a Really Bad Day, this car proceeds to run straight over my phone. It could have been anywhere on the three lane road, but it chose at that moment to be right there, and its front wheels right there, and at the moment of contact, which appeared to me at least to be playing in slow-motion, my phone obviously exploded into pieces. (If it were a movie, it would also have been raining, and the car would have then driven through a puddle and sprayed me.)

So. I need a new cell phone.

I stopped by my local T-Mobile hut on my way home to get a cheap replacement phone for the time being--I need my phone at a bare minimum for work, forget texting and internet and taking pictures and Those Things You Kids Do--I just need it so that the nurses and anesthetists and various staff can easily reach me--but this is a temporary fix, until I figure out what to do next. See, I really liked my old phone. It had a good camera on it, and it took DVD quality video, and while the web interface wasn't the slickest thing in the world, it was good enough for my purposes. It also didn't have all that business stuff that I never used, like Word and Excel and Crazy Business Card Organizer, because honestly, I'm not that kind of cell phone user. I liked my old phone, it was a goodly phone. And now it is a pile of plastic chips.

The saddest thing is I can't even show you a picture of the carnage, since not only is my camera phone (obviously) defunct, my regular camera also seems to have developed some horrible camera disease after I (perhaps unwisely) allowed Cal to take pictures with it, and seems to have lost all ability to focus. I'm not sure what happened, maybe something with the lens, or maybe the (hmmm hmmm) got knocked out of line with the (hmmmm). I don't know, I'm no expert on cameras. However, I suppose this is a minor point, unless one is actually interested in taking pictures that are in focus.

Anyway, I need a new cell phone now. Luckily, I seem to have some sort of business account through work (fancy!) so at least that'll cover the cost. Anyone have any good suggestions as to a suitable replacement for the Nokia N95?