A lot of GSM and CDMA cell phone service providers these days have plans that offer a feature that basically works like a VIP list of your contacts. Usually these CDMA and GSM cell phones allow five to ten other numbers to fill this list, with which you can talk and/or text indefinitely. Verizon calls it Friends & Family. Alltel used to call it My Circle. Whatever the provider, I like to refer to it simply as "My Posse". Now a lot of people find these kinds of plans enticing. They are a sweet deal, but they also come with a lot of emotional baggage that you might not expect. GSM cell phones are demanding that way. Little do you realize in signing up for these plans, that you have just asked yourself to make one of the most agonizing decisions one can be expected to make: Which five people get to be a part of your posse?
This is an important decision. In fact, it is probably the most important decision you will make all week. Or at least until you find yourself very hungry when you find a KFC and a Popeye's right across the street from each other. That's right. For all your GSM cell phones and fancy smartphones with apps that can analyze the local weather and advises on how to prepare your hair, there still isn't an easy way to prioritize your friends and loved ones. However, there are many points worth taking into consideration when the time comes.
The first step is simply to think about who you regularly talk to for the longest duration of time; this way at least your aunt isn't wasting your minutes, blathering on about the rude guy in line at the bank or whatever it is aunts talk about. In fact, there's an excellent choice right there. You know she's going to call you anyway, and even if you don't pick up, she'll still complain to your mother about it. You cannot win. So for that reason, aunts make a good candidate for your Five. If they're going to talk you to death, it should at least be free.
Another good addition to your Five would probably be somebody you already have designated as an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact. This should not be the above mentioned aunt as she lacks the pragmatism and urgency required in an emergency, and will probably faint at the sight of blood if you've fallen down the cellar stairs or something. Instead, it's probably better to have someone responsible on there whom you can rely on to save you when feral dogs have broken into your apartment, again. The last thing you want is having to call your ICE contact after you discover a lump only to find that you're out of minutes.
While we're on the subject of life-or-death situations, provided you have sold your soul to marriage, or are otherwise shackled to a woman, your significant other must always be in your Five. Not necessarily so you can call them (although if you don't, you risk being the victim of a witch hunt), but rather so they can see it. That's it really. They just have to be there. It doesn't sound like a good reason, but you'll wish you did when she's going through your phone and sees that she isn't on your Five, but that Chinese place up the block with the really good egg rolls is. If you aren't single, then omitting your partner is basically just making a huge withdrawal from the First Bank of Pain.
But seriously, if you aren't romantically doomed, you might want to keep the number of that Chinese place in your top Five. I call that place up at least ten times a week.
Author Resource:
Article by Paul Wise. When it comes to CDMA cell phones Paul recommends MobilecustomsUSA.com for great advice on electronics, safety, and other GSM cell phones.
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