Goodbye Blackberry

I was never a fan of the Blackberry, not even when they were new and "cool." Like much of America, my first "cool" phone was the Motorola Razr. That fad only lasted a few months as there were all sorts of problems with the phone. Shortly after that, I decided to experiment with several of the Helio phones. Remember Helio? No, I'm sure most of you never heard of it when it was around and those of you that did have probably totally erased it from your minds by now. Here, let me refresh our memory 

Ha, I love the shout out to Myspace mobile (yes, this was 2006). Pretty gimmicky and funny, but the company must have spent all their money on a marketing blitz with ads like this. One minute Helio was everywhere (no, really, it was literally about a minute). And the next. Poof! Out of business. Luckily for me, after the company failed, the iPhone was already in full swing. Naturally, I followed Helio with an iPhone and I loved it! Unfortunately for me, not long after getting my first iPhone I lost it :( By the way, I forgot to mention that I'm not one of those persons who drops $600 plus dollars on a new phone, I'm all about upgrades. So after I lost my iPhone I decided to go back to the basics and go with the $30 dollar flip phone until I was eligible for another  upgrade. Yes, you can mock me, everyone else did.

A very long year or so later, I was finally able to get my hands on another iPhone (i think it was the 3G) at the discounted upgrade price. Score! That lasted almost a full year (a near record for me) before, well, you guessed it, another lost phone! Doh! This time however I was only a few months away from an upgrade. While I waited for my upgrade, rather than going back to a $30 flip phone, I decided to give the Blackberry a try. After all, by then almost everyone I knew had old Blackberrys they were all too eager to give me. Yes, they had all switched to the iPhone. After a few months (and several broken hand me down Blackberrys) I was eligible for an upgrade! I almost ran out to buy a new iPhone until I realized two things. One, the iPhone 5 was out soon! And two, I was moving to Oregon. Why does moving to Oregon matter? For those of you who don't know. No sales tax! That's right, the grand state of Oregon does not impose sales tax.....on anything! That meant a few more months of waiting. I ordered my phone the day after I moved to Astoria and after almost 3 weeks of waiting, ta-dah it arrived this morning! It's a beautiful phone full of neat features and gadgets, most of which I will never use or understand.

If you're still reading, you might be wondering why such a long drawn out story about a phone! Well, it just so happens that my phone, and primarily the camera, will be the method by which I will  capture the beauty of Astoria, its landmarks, restaurants and shops. I am very excited to go out and take pictures. Lots of pictures of the beauty that is everywhere and share it with all of you here on my blog, so please forgive me for this rather dull post about phones and I promise that the next few stories will be filled with interesting photos and stories from my new home.