stories of my life in Tucson AZ and NYC

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

“I buy my first cordless telephone”



a Tucson painting by Felix Pasilis


Tuesday, April 22, 2008 8:15 AM

“I buy my first cordless telephone”

I tried to write yesterday morning when I woke up and it went nowhere so I am trying again today. I guess I will keep trying every morning until I get something to work. The last story I wrote was in December, which now seems like a lifetime away.

It is late April in Tucson. Our leaves are in full green leaf now. They are no longer in their baby colors, all that sweet chartreusey, but the green of a green leaf. I have been in Tucson so long now, 16 years, that I am used to leaves looking like this. Not huge green things, the shape of your palm, but like tiny miniature ferns. When I first arrived in Tucson I called them curlicues, I did not even consider them leaves. But now they are the leaves I am most used to.

The sky is blue, which is very nice. Altho not so visible while I am looking out my window because of all the trees being in full green leaf (curlicues), so just part of the blue sky shows. Usually I took a flawless blue sky for granted, because in Tucson you can have it for months on end. But this winter was so cold, so blustery, so long lasting, so stormy, that I am still waking up with gratitude for the blue sky. My feeling of its permanence was shaken by this endless winter. It still seems like a gift to me. In the North today would be a day in mid-May, but the desert is one month ahead of the North. We get mid-May in April.

I think we must still be in the midst of the Jewish holidays, Pesach. Because when we were driving yesterday after the swim pool to Target to get me a new telephone, Bill and I both observed the man in full orthodox dress, that black hat, that black coat, that pais (curling hair around his ears), walking home from the orthodox Synagogue. “It is Monday” I thought, “why is he walking, not driving a car?” And on the way back from Target I noticed the Jewish appetizing store was closed. “Has there just been a full moon?” I asked Bill. “Yes” he said, “a few days ago.” “Then it must be Pesach,” I said, “it lasts a week.”

Buying a telephone at Target turned out not to be simple. I had decided to buy a new phone for my desk, my regular phone, which I use to call the repairman or talk to my friends. Because the phone I have, which I had bought at Target on 9/11, has started to squeak. Whenever I am talking to someone, it emits loud squeaks and shrieks. I don’t mind it very much but I think it must be murder for the person on the other end. Bill said “how do you know it is the phone, maybe it is not plugged in right or a connection came loose.” “But a phone only costs 10 dollars now, and I think this one is having problems.” For some reason I have bought a lot of phones fairly recently, and they are always ten dollars.

So I went to the place for the phones to look for the ten dollar phone. I couldn’t find it, and got a man to help me. He didn’t want to help me. “Go look! Whatever is there we have. And if it’s not there we don’t have it.” But I made him come with me anyway. “I don’t see it,” I said. “That’s because they don’t make cord phones anymore.” “Why not?” I asked. “Because everyone wants cordless.”

The only cord phone was a pink princess phone for 30 dollars.
“Why is that phone $30, is it an exceptionally good phone, I need a good phone.”
“It is $30 because that company makes retro designs from the ‘50s.”
“I don’t want a retro design from the ‘50s for $30, I just want a regular phone.”
“You have to have a cordless phone then” he said.
“OK” I said, “which is the cheapest one?”
“That one is $10” he said.
“OK” I said, “I'll take it.”

I had never used a cordless phone before so of course I was nervous that I wouldn’t get it to work right, like a regular phone. But this is how you get pushed into new technology, they simply stop making what you are used to.

On the way to find the telephones I bought sunglasses. On the desert you really need sunglasses, it is blindingly bright. So I buy them and never wear them. Because even tho it is blindingly bright, I don’t like stuff on my face. But these were pink and pretty and I decided to give them a whirl. Of course they cost more than the phone. Then I passed purses on clearance on the way to the phone department. And there was cute, very small, just big enough for my wallet, pink shiny one. I liked it because it had a big flower on it, and was subtle, dark, dusty pink. I wondered if it was big enough for both my wallet and my (new) sunglasses, but I bought it anyway. I haven’t been in a store other than grocery store in 2 weeks, I was in the mood for treats. The tiny pink purse on clearance cost same as the phone.

It still amazes me that any chotchka you pick up at Target-- the new phone you buy costs less than that. A new phone is the price of two 12 packs of soda. How can a telephone be so inexpensive. Soon it will be the price of a package of gum.

I seem to be winding up with a lot of pink recently. Yesterday I bought that tiny pink purse and sunglasses with pink frames. Last month at JC Penney’s I bought a pink wallet, and on my birthday in early April I got it out of the bag and transferred all my cards into it, and am using it. And few days ago in CVS Pharmacy, where we stopped to buy soda, I asked the salesgirl which is her favorite nail polish. “Hot pink” she said. And she led me to her 3 favorites, all shades of hot pink, and I bought all 3. My fingernails are one shade of it now, and my toe nails another shade. Hahaha I am accessorized in pink.

In the morning, before we went to the swim pool, I dealt with the mystery of the disappearing bank card. Apparently some time last week my new bank card had arrived. And I had sensibly called the phone number on the back to activate it right away, and was amazed it went thru with no problem. That is the bank card I use all the time to pay for purchases or to get money. I don’t think I realized my old one had expired, because I had some idea I now had two.

However it seems to me, I could not find my purse with my wallet in it right away, so I had just put it on top of the heap of clothes on my chair, figuring I would do it later. “Isn’t this nice!” I thought, “I am trusting myself! Ordinarily I would never just sit it on top of the huge heap of clothes on my chair, I would assume I would lose it. I would force myself to put it in its proper place, my wallet, right now. But now I trust myself. I trust myself that I am a person of wits, who will not lose her bank card.”

When we were in CVS Pharmacy 4 days ago, I hadn’t brought my wallet, so I asked Bill for his bank card to pay for the four 12-packs of soda and 3 nail polishes. I wanted some cash too, I had none at all. But my pin number was rejected. I assumed I had remembered it wrong and tried all 3 variations. All 3 were rejected so I paid with Credit Card.

It wasn’t till I went to the bakery on Saturday and tried to use it to pay for the bread and pastry, and it was rejected, that I discovered it had expired. This time it was my own card. “O! so that is why they sent me the new one” I thought, “the old one expired.” I told Bill in the car and he said “they must have sent mine too.” And I said “I didn’t feel another card in there.” And I said “when I get home, I will have to find my bank card.”

And I really did look every place. Not that day, but the next day. All day Sunday I looked for it, and even again a little yesterday morning. In the process I hung up all the clothes which had been on that chair since Christmas. There was a ton of clothes, but no bank card shook out of any of them. “Well maybe I imagined I put it on top of my clothes, maybe I left it on the desk and the huge winds which blew in, blew it on the floor.” And I actually did pick up some of the papers the wind had blown on the floor, while I was looking for the bank card, but I didn’t see it. So then I looked in improbable places, old wallets, on top of bills, all around. Plus Bill had said “they must have sent my bank card too then.” What had I done with that! I had never even remembered seeing it.

So then mid-morning yesterday, when I had hung up the rest of the clothes from the chair, and no bank card showed up, I called the bank. Jennifer said “no, they don’t mail both cards out together.” I said “Bill’s never arrived.” She said “call this number to cancel his, and cancel yours, and then an hour later I will order you new bank cards, it will take about 10 days.” “So I should look in mail for his separately from mine?” “Yes” she said. “It’s hard” I said, “because it is always from an address I don’t recognize, and sent out so obscurely, I never realize it is a card, till I feel the strange weight inside the envelope, but this time I will look very carefully for them.”

And when we stopped at the bank on the way to the pool so I could get some cash, I hadn’t even had the one dollar to play the lottery with Jim on Saturday. I said to the teller “how do I get cash, all I have is Bill’s old bank card?” She said “I know, I just ordered you the new cards.” “Are you Jennifer?” I said. “Yes” she said. It was so sweet that the girl who had been so kind helpful and understanding to me on the phone, was now in front of me. A pretty brunette with long hair and busty. And she was so nice to me in person too. She said “how much do you want?” I said “70, that should hold me till the new bankcard arrives.” And I signed for it, and we each wished the other a great day.

I got in the car and said “I got the cash.”
“Great!” he said, “tomorrow is dollar day at the movies, I want to go to two.”
I said “after the pool will you take me to Target, I need a phone.”
“Are you sure you do?“ he said.
“Yes I do” I said.
“Well don’t buy two of them, you always buy two of everything.”
“Nobody buys two telephones” I said. “I buy two jars of mayonnaise because mayonnaise gets used up.”

But when I walked into Target and was told they no longer make cord telephones I thought, I should have bought two when I was in Target last month buying one for Bill....



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