Palm Pre/Nephew/BlackBerry

I was so excited when I had my Palm Centro and they announced the Palm Pre, I may even have some old blog posts about it. Then the Palm Pre came out and it was hell of expensive and I didn't have the $$ at the time, later I ended up getting my BlackBerry and all was Wonderful in my World. I love my BlackBerry, I'm on it constantly and it's great. My brother and I are competitive (as most brothers are) and I had given him my old Centro when I got my BB. He fell in love with Palm while I fell for BB. I'm trying to convince him to get one, he's trying to convince me to get the Pre (which he already knew he was going to get) and so back and forth.

Well yesterday I spent with my nephew who is 13, I've called him precious since my sister brought him home from the hospital...and he still lets me call him that. ;) Well I feel for him because he lives out in the middle of nowhere, in a trailer, his dad is a tweaker his step mom is a tweaker and his real mom is a tweaker/alkie and he has two baby half brothers who are monsters. He's such a good kid, sweet, smart and...my precious. Well like most kids his age he wants a cell phone and it's the ONLY thing he's wanted forever. Being so rural it would give him a chance to connect with his friends, access the internet (they have no computer) and...well...be able to TALK to people, they have no home phone. He wants a BlackBerry and he wanted to know if I would test my BlackBerry where he lives to see if he gets service because his paternal grandma was thinking of getting him one on Sprint, which is my carrier. She later said no, it's too expensive and blah blah blah...they can afford it, he gets a disability check (see below) and they are in charge of it.

He has retinitis pigmentosa (which makes him even more precious to me) and he lives up a lil bit from the river and he's always down there walking around with his dog Lucky. I haven't been to his place in years and when I took him back yesterday from visiting both sets of grandparents, I was shocked at how deplorable his living conditions really are. The trailer was a mess, there is junk all over the yard, and it really is like a redneck lifestyle. So as we're walking around testing my phone, I can tell he REALLY does not want me and my mom to leave. His dad is tweaking on a motorcycle (and then takes off because he knows I don't like his sorry loser ass), the two monster babies are destroying things and the step mom is moving stuff around the yard. I swear I'm in Arkansas (oh yeah, I went there) so he says "Uncle let's try the phone down by the river because I go down there a lot with Lucky". So we go and I'm so nervous because the trail down is strewn with logs and large rocks and the path is sometimes covered with branches from fallen trees and I'm thinking wtf? He's legally blind and he comes down here, a lot? So we get to the river, of my course my BB and Sprint work (kudos) and we head back up and he surprisingly does very well back up the trail. I guess he does spend some time going down to the river. So we race back up the last part of the trail (he wins because LUCKY gets in front of me and goes super slow, I know he did that on purpose! Lucky has his back) and as we're walking back to the trailer I'm thinking, this kid needs a phone. Sometimes he's home alone, he's down at the river (alone), he has no one to talk to because his parents are off doing their own thing and he can't really have that much in common with a 4 year old and 2 year old who are wild children. No home phone, no computer, no cable, wow. We say our goodbyes and as I'm driving away towards the gate to the road I wanted to cry at the scene I was looking at, step mom lugging junk in a wagon (tweaking, I'm sure), two little boys throwing crap all over, dad is gone and my precious goes and sits on a bench next to the abandoned house in front of their trailer and kind of looks around like...now what to do? Whew! That was tough for me. Fuck it, I'm "technically" homeless, I'm unemployed, on unemployment and live in hotels while I look for work...my precious needs a phone. So I got him one yesterday when we got back to where my parents live, I couldn't afford to get him the BlackBerry but I got him what I could and I added him to my plan and talked to my bro (who is also on my plan) and we'll pay his monthly bill. He doesn't know any of this and I figured I'd drive out there today and surprise him.

So my brother starts texting me about the Palm Pre this morning, RadioShack (where I bought my nephew's phone) is having a special on the Pre and I had texted my bro last night about it. So this morning, he makes his move...he'll buy my Palm Pre (along with his) and we can return the cheap phone I got for my nephew and give him my BlackBerry. LOL, bastard! He knows I would do anything for my precious (as would he) AND he wins because I caved and will get the Pre. I'm now excited about it because he keeps telling me all the stuff the Palm Pre can do, all in all it's a win win.

My mom and I took my nephew his phone today and he was so excited and grateful, and EVEN more excited when I told him it was just a temporary phone and he was getting my BlackBerry. LOL, he's been texting me all night and calling me asking questions about the BlackBerry and apps. I told him I can reset the phone to factory conditions but he doesn't want that, he wants to sit down with me and go over the apps I already have and decide which ones to keep/delete. I think my brother is stoked because we'll have the same phone and can learn about it together.

I think people would look at my situation and feel sorry or bad for me, I look at my life...and just think, it's Wonderful. ;) peace
UPDATE: Just a few minutes after I posted this I got a text from my nephew "Luv u nite". LOL who just teared up?
UPDATE: I went back to my BlackBerry, my nephew kept the BlackBerry Curve and I upgraded to the BlackBerry Tour! ;) peace