Is this me?

Have you ever found yourself slipping, ever so slowly and subtly, into a world completely NOT like you?

I have always eschewed brand shopping, name dropping and ladder-climbing in favor of loyalty to the good and reliable. When everyone else was buying Cuisinart I was still using, and praising my 1984 Oster Kitchen Center, I used cloth diapers instead of disposable preferring the "natural fiber feel" for my baby, I refused to put down sod and grew my grass from seed, and then I woke up and realized something.......

Not only did I purchase a Motorola Razr V3 phone (I managed to resist buying a pink one) but today I found myself sliding the debit card out of my wallet in pursuit of ..........I almost can't say it......a, ummmm, a................(if I say it fast it won't hurt as much) Bluetooth hands free device.

There, it's out, I've said it, and as they say, admitting it is half the battle. It's killing me, I used to absolutely go bananas when I saw people walking around the mall, the grocery store, walmart....wherever.....wearing their little multi-colored ear candy and talking business while doing their shopping and now ............ am I one of them? If I am one of them is it okay?

How did this happen to me? It started with my phone malfunctioning on vacation. At odd and random times my phone would ring, I'd answer, and there'd be no one there.....just silence. It was only after a few days and several of these calls that I determined my phone was NOT working. Apparently the person on the other end of the line could hear me (probably saying wierd things like...."If you don't stop calling me and hanging up I'm going to track you down and strangle you in your sleep!") but I couldn't hear them UNLESS I put in the earphone (the old-fashioned wired type). It was all very frustrating and since I was at the end of my contract period (wierd how that happened JUST when I qualified for a new phone......conspiracy?Hmmmmm....) I went into the Verizon store and fell prey to the salesperson. Before I knew it I had purchased a cute little, trendy little, made for teenage girls type phone...the Razr....yippee.

I had resigned myself to the fact that it's just a phone, at least I knew I wasn't buying it for any reason other than the fact that I needed a phone. Then I found out that a Razr only has one kind of hands free capability and that's "Bluetooth" AAAAAGGGGHHHHH! The dilemma has been whether to break down and join the masses or give up hands-free which is so much safer/easier in the car.

So here I am, one of the crowd, just another fad following, cash spending, brand flashing showoff. I'm so depressed!