scary stuff!

I have just completed the first step in becoming an independent contractor/consultant. YIKES!

Ok, let me back up a moment here and give some context: I had the final conversation/interview yesterday with the folks with whom I will sign a contract next week to provide consultancy services (YAY!). This is all very exciting but since nothing has been officially signed yet I don't want to get ahead of myself on the celebratory front so I'm staying very calm for the moment.

Now, it might be strange but I have a very sentimental attachment to my phone number. I've had it for 12 years and I kind of like having a phone (albeit a cell phone) that is just that. A phone. Not a tiny little connector to the broad world of the internet, emails, facebook, etc. I like having a simple device that can function as a simple phone.

I do, however, need a smart phone for work purposes. I need to be able to connect to the web, receive and send emails, etc. when I'm on the move. I also feel like I need a California area code. This puts me in a bit of a pickle: On the one hand, I have this sentimental attachment to the old number with an Ohio area code (and - lets be real here - it will take a long time to get through all of the people in my address book to let them know about a new number (read: I'm lazy). Plus, how does one do that with people you haven't talked to in a long time? Like a decade or so? Send a text? "Hey, I know we haven't connected in a really long time but just in case you ever want to talk to me, I'm changing my number. I know I'm that important to you..." No. Seems weird.)

But, on the other hand, when I give people in California my contact information, the inevitable question is, "614? Where's that?" And then I have to say, "Ohio" and they just assume I'm a country bumpkin (which I don't even know how to spell) or that I'm not going to stick around but rather run back "home" to Ohio.

Incidentally, I also like to keep "personal" and "professional" separate. So, my solution idea was to add a line to my existing phone contract. Luckily, there's an online special going on at t-mobile where you can get a fancy new super smart I-would-never-buy-that-for-myself-it's-WAY-too-expensive phone for free if you add a line to an existing contract. HA! Perfect!

I fancied myself quite brilliant as I began the process of adding a line. Sadly, I have to confess that as I went through all the steps of the process - adding new services (I have to have a data package now) and choosing a smart phone (NOT easy when you have "self perpetuated technological retardation") - I got nervous. At no point was I asked the question "what area code would you like?" Since the whole point here was to get an area code that is different from the one currently on the contract, that's the only question I really wanted to answer.

I couldn't figure out how to figure it out so I spent 10 minutes trying to locate a phone number on the website to call and ask them for help with my web-based order.

I am so not tech savvy.

After explaining the whole thing to Mark, the very patient customer service representative, several times over (no, I'm not bringing my current number to t-mobile, I've been with you for 12 years. No, I'm not adding a new line to the same phone number. No, I don't want to add lines for my non-existent children thank you very much!), he finally had an AHA-moment and understood what I was trying to do. Whew! For a minute there I thought I was going to have to give up and just hope they would assign a number that goes with my billing address as opposed to a number that matches the existing one.

In the end, it turns out, that's what they do anyway. They give you a number that matches your billing address. You don't get to have any say in that. In this particular instance I don't care since the outcome is the one I wanted so I suppressed my instinctual desire (need?) to argue the merits of this policy.

So: I will be receiving a fancy new smarty pants phone some time next week and I will be a grown up consultant with a California phone number for those professional types in my life. (I'm DEFINITELY keeping my old phone for a while though!!!)

And another adventure begins...