First, there was the phone. Until 2013, I was a landline-only person. I loved my phone number, so much so that when I moved from downtown, I called the phone company and told them, “I’m moving and I want to keep my phone number.” Thankfully, rules had relaxed and it came with me when Matt and I moved in together, and then followed us to the Orange Door.

In 2013, I bought my first cell phone*, skipping over all other incarnations and jumping in at the smartphone period. I was surprised at how much I liked it. So this was why everyone was always staring at them. One thing I didn’t like? My cell phone number. It started with 971, for one thing. Who wants that stupid area code? I didn’t actually want to talk on my cell phone, so I kept the landline, and my awesome phone number.
Just this year, I learned you can keep your landline number and have it ported to your cell phone company. I would not have to give up my beloved phone number! It happened that I was due for a new phone, so instead of upgrading and transferring my cell number to my new phone, I instead transferred my landline number to my new phone. It was easy!**
Now we are not paying the monthly bill for a landline AND I have my favorite phone number. All is well.
I realize that cool phone numbers are more-or-less moot. Once the number gets programmed into someone’s phone they never look at it again. But I know how cool my phone number is. It’s mathematically correct! So I’m happy.
*Note that this is not cell phone, version 1, it’s cell phone version 2.
**Porting the number was easy, dealing with the fallout from the landline people was not. We lost internet for a few days, which wasn’t fun, and turned out to have not been necessary.





The east side of Portland has the sun, but the clouds are creeping in from the west side.







