I am

finally fully integrated into the mobile/texting/app happy world.

Shock. Eyes bugging out. Disbelief. Perhaps even an eye roll or two. Go ahead. I'll wait....

Better? Want to know how I've gone this long?

Cell phone days began for me in my first professional job out of college. I had a commercial real estate license and began showing property. Okay, I was only 22, and was showing property on behalf of another agent who didn't want to drive out to this one particular dud of a property. He gave me the safety talk and I bought my first prepaid cellphone. To be fair, I had thus far taken pride in the fact that I hadn't had one.

A few years go by; I get married, change jobs, and work part time as a rep covering the greater Knoxville (think Oneida) territory. I am thankful for this phone and dub it my "I'm in a ditch, come and get me phone". I had it in the car at all times and rarely used it. I'm not one for talking on the phone in general and really didn't understand the need to have one out and about to talk about .... well, I truly don't know what.

I used a company called Tracfone and for a mere $95 a year had service with 300 minutes, text, caller ID, and voicemail. I never texted or used voicemail. Only my mom, husband, and sister had the number. It was for emergencies...... only. I do distinctly remember talking to my husband after the September 11th attacks.

Fast forward to pregnancy (about 4 years ago). I upgraded my phone so that I could be found via GPS. All was well. Although cell phones were certainly every day life and standard equipment, I didn't understand the need for texting vs. e-mail. Plus, I couldn't give up my no hidden fees cell phone plan with rollover minutes; which, at this point were in the thousands.

Fast forward again to last summer. I was taking prenatal yoga classes and my teacher asked if I texted b/c that was how she communicated about the class. I began to feel a little silly about not texting. I told her no, and got these really drawn out messages about class with requests to call her back to confirm class being cancelled or postponed, etc. Apps were more than prolific and my old way of organizing my time/thoughts/dates was becoming tedious. I realized by not texting I was causing more work for other people to get in touch with me, and that BOTHERED me.

I hate causing people to work harder than necessary. I am the person who will walk across the store to reshelve an item properly. I always stack my dishes to make it easier on those that clear my plate at a restaurant. I figure with these service jobs in particular, people have a hard enough time as it is and you never know what kind of situation or conversation they have just walked away from. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...

This past spring a friend called me to give me the rainy day plans for her son's party. She said, "I'm not sure what the weather will do by the time of the party, so I'll just text you." I had to tell her that I didn't text, but that I wouldn't be leaving until the party anyways, so I'd be around for the (voice) message. That really did it. Here was this poor girl trying to organize a party for a 1 year old and I just added to her stress by mandating a voice call.

Last month a good friend came over and did some batch cooking with me. She showed me her Droid phone and my jaw dropped. I knew that such wonderful capabilities were out there, but I had always kept my distance knowing that I would want one if I really knew how great they were. We had just scaled our budget back for other purposes and I couldn't find a way to come up with the monthly payment.

As timing would have it, my old Tracfone was up for renewal over the 4th of July holiday. If I had to renew it anyways, maybe I could at least get a fancier phone. I did a lot of online researching and found Virgin mobile. Prepaid. As in $25 a month for 300 minutes of talk, unlimited texting, web, data, blah, blah, blah. TA and DA!! I thought I'd try it and if worse came to worse, at least I wasn't committed to a contract.

One month in, and I truly LOVE my phone. I went antiquing over the weekend, got lost, and pulled up the GPS map to find my way. I have an app that gives me "sticky note" capability,and GLORY BE, the whole thing syncs up with my google account.

Hooray and happy day.

(Ashley writes for the column "True Confessions of a slow-acceptor" and is exploring something called a Blue-Ray while she wrestles the phone out of the hands of a 3 year old playing "mad birds mama!")