My husband bought the house we live in shortly after we started dating in 2004. I moved in after we got married in 2008. Yet, somehow it has taken us until this to get a table and chairs for our back patio. My husband is not likely to buy something like this for himself, so I’m not surprised that he never suggested it. I think I never thought it would work because our back patio is teeny tiny. Not to mention that for much of the time it always seemed like a place no one would really want to spend much time. It looks out into the alley. Plus my husband like with all things doesn’t seem to notice the horrible clutter he leaves about that I don’t want to deal with but makes me write off entire portions of our house (see the basement). Until I finally decided to do something about during the nice early spring we had this year, the back patio was littered with detritus of old plant life and stuff from various construction projects over the years and who knows what else. After I cleaned it all up I decided I really did want a little table and chairs back there. I found a little set at Target that is the perfect size for us and also nicely folds up so we’ll be able to store it during the winter. I’ve been spending a lot of time out there since we set it up. It’s great to sit out there and read under the shade of our umbrella, and the one little Japanese maple we have back there really does block much of the view into the alley. I’m rather kicking myself for letting it take almost 8 years before we did this. Now if I could only get my husband to stop throwing crap around back there and actually throw it away. I already yelled at him last night for plant detritus he has already tossed about since I cleaned it all up a few weeks ago.

I don’t tend to write about “stuff” very much on this blog because I find that experiences and people make me happier than things. I’m definitely blessed to have grown up in a well off family and to be living very comfortably right now such that I generally can afford most material possessions that I want. That being said I think long and hard about making major purchases and don’t buy stuff for the sake of buying stuff. I don’t consider myself to be a very materialistic person. As I mentioned I was lucky to grow up in family that could provide for all my needs and many of my wants, but I also think my parents did a good job of raising me to value the things that matter most in life which aren’t in fact things at all.

That being said, of course I do get great pleasure from material things from time to time. A little over a week ago I upgraded my phone from the MyTouch 3G Slide to the HTC One S. My husband and I are apparently 2 of the about 10 people left in the country still using T-Mobile for our cell phone service. They were the company I signed up with (well actually Voicestream at the time), and I have always been happy with them. I’ve always received good customer service from them and unlike people I know on AT&T, my phone actually works. They may not have access to the iPhone, but as I have no interest in owning an iPhone I’m perfectly content.

While I was very happy with my MyTouch 3G Slide, I was anxious for my 2 year upgrade this go round. When it came out it was the phone I had been waiting for. I had waffled about getting a smartphone for awhile, but really wanted one with a physical keyboard. There just weren’t any available that I was happy with for a long time, until the 3G Slide hit the market. Because I am a genius (or lucky) I managed to get it for only $30 after my husband threatened to leave T-Mobile if they didn’t honor the new customer promotion they were running. However, after 2 years the phone was past its prime. The internal space on the phone was not sufficient for the size of current apps and I was constantly running out of space. Plus, about a year after buying the phone I dropped it and the camera broke, so I missed having a camera in my phone for about the last year I owned it.

With my 2 year contract on that phone and the chance for an upgrade imminent I started keeping an eye out for new Android phones on T-Mobile. I was wary of getting a phone without a keyboard as the physical keyboard was one of the things I really liked about my previous phone, but those are very few and far between and I wasn’t pleased with any of my options. After reading lots of reviews though, even with its lack of a physical keyboard I started leaning towards the HTC One S. Many of the reviews I read deemed it the best Android phone on the market. Thus, last Sunday we went to the T-Mobile store at our local mall to take a look at the phone in person. (Sadly the T-Mobile store blocks from our house isn’t open on Sundays.) I did really like the phone after playing with it for a few minutes, and I decided to go through with the upgrade. Not to mention my genius phone buying abilities also got me the phone for $150 off because of 2 concurrent short-lived promotions being run by T-Mobile that got me a $50 rebate plus $100 for trading in my old smartphone. Even the sales guy was impressed.

I have now been using my phone for a week and I love it! It is so much faster than my old phone at everything it does. Not that the interface on my old phone was horrible, but there are just some changes that make using the phone so much easier and more intuitive. Granted much of this is really just due to the upgraded version of Android I’m running on the new phone (Ice Cream Sandwich as opposed to Froyo).

I also have a working camera again! In fact it has come to the point where my actual camera is so old, and the camera in my phone so good that my camera phone is better than my real camera. I didn’t even take my actual camera with me on our vacation to Oklahoma last week. I just used my phone to take pictures.

Oh, and on that keyboard issue…it’s not one. The phone is slightly larger than my old phone in all dimensions but thickness (it’s crazy super thin) so the screen is larger which makes the onscreen keyboard easier to use. Plus I find it to be super responsive. I’ve always had issues typing on onscreen keyboards including the iPhone, but this one I have very few problems with. Additionally, I’m finding the spellcheck/autocorrect features that are part of Ice Cream Sandwich to be genius. So much better than what I have ever dealt with on my iOS devices or my older version of Android.

I’m sure that in 2 years when my contract is up, this phone will too seem horribly outdated and in desperate need of an upgrade, but for now I’m loving it and hope to for some time to come.