If we were living in a Greek Tragedy, Brent's tragic flaw would be his need for the latest and greatest technology out there. Of coarse, true to literature, it is also something that makes him great. We get phone calls several times a week of people who have questions on certain electronics. In fact, it even played a roll during my year of falling in love with him. He seems to always know exactly how to fix a problem, answer a question, or update your device to ease the stress of your day.
He's also a mac guy. , there have been nights (many, actually), where I'll wake up to find him reading the acclaimed website macrumors.com. I think he knows what's on the horizon before Steve Jobs does.
So as you can imagine, when the iphone was introduced this time last year, my husband was a ball of joy. He waited for months - listing in random moments between conversation two or three more things that it had the ability to do, how many gigs it stored, the weight of the product - how it would feel in his hand.
Unfortunately, if you all recall, it also cost $600.00. And that's before the cancelation fee from Verizon (another $250), plus an upgrade in minutes for internet (another$30), plus the inconvenience of not having a family plan for our minutes - which put my bill up another $50 a month, and the unfortunate event of realizing those saved minutes were nice - after going over several months in a row . . . (at least another several hundred dollars), which eventually meant me switching over to Verizon to save us minutes with a family plan (another cancelation fee . .). You get the picture.
So in reality, the first iphone cost us well over $1,000.
But I had just gotten back a week earlier from France - which cost us much more than the above mentioned amount. Who was I to steal such joy from my Greek Hero, after having whitled away our savings for my own personal satisfaction and training abroad?
So we struck a deal. It took one conversation and Brent readily agreed that if he got the iphone he would keep it for 2 years without upgrading. I tried to sway his decision, I did. I knew that there would be a lighter, faster, GPS loaded one around the corner. But sway him I could not.
Fast Forward 10 months to June 2008.
The new iphone has just been posted on macrumers.com. Brent is in a fit of passion - every waking moment is spent researching how wonderful this latest device will make citizen's lives. He is counting down the days until it is released. He talks about it around every meal.
I remind him of our deal. He determines that if can raise enough money outside of our budget, then he should be able to have the phone. He starts making phone calls about selling off some of his golf equipment . . . .
Then it happened. I was running some errand and I had forgotten my computer. My computer, a simple macbook, is my brain. Without it I don't know where I'm supposed to be, at what time, or who with. It keeps my life running - and smoothly, I might add. In a panic I called home, hoping Brent would be there to navigate through ical and tell me the list of things to be done that day. And in so doing, I realized, it was I who needed an iphone.
So the banter began. Brent would be daydreaming about the white 16 gigs of GPS that could be in his pocket, and I would sigh and mention how worth the wait it will have been for me - when I had that sleek device in my hand.
It was mean, I admit. But truly, I really never expected to buy the phone.
Except this time around it is only $200, and by now we've both switched to Cingular, so there's no cancelation fee. Sigh.
What I didn't expect was my dear husband to stand in line an hour each day, five days in a row, until he could buy the phone for me. He then came, sacrifice in hand, and offered up what he had wanted so much, to me: the non-electronic savy she-bear.
Can you blame me for expecting it to be a trick? I was sure he was guilting me into just trading him the new one for his old one. But believe it or not, no such thing has happened. Eventually I did offer to trade - who wouldn't have? But he has held fast to the commitment he made. And now his wife is a mac-lover too.