Convenience

Speed dial is pretty much awesome. I've got about 60 different people I can call at any given moment just by hitting a number and the pound key. You meet a person once, store their number, and never have to worry about the digits again. Back in the days before I had a cell phone (and in the days when I had a terribly cheap cell phone) I didn't have that feature, so I knew the phone numbers of anyone I wanted to call. Of course, at that time everyone I would call lived in my area code, and most everyone had the same first three digits, so I only really had to remember about 4 digits per person. Now everyone comes from all over the place, which means ten digits a piece. I don't want to waste a significant portion of my brain remembering everyone's exact phone numbers, so speed dial is ridiculously convenient.

Unless I get put in jail, as I've learned today.

I'd always wondered what would happen if I lost my phone, because I don't actually know anyone's phone numbers any more. The thought progression would be something like "Yeah, that would suck balls." And then I'd laugh and completely forget how screwed I'd be if it happened for real.

So today I was doing intake at the jail and met this guy who had been put in detox and was now sobering up. He wanted to call his parents to come bail him out. He wanted to call his sister to bail him out. He wanted to call his girlfriend so she knew where he was. And he wanted to call his work so they knew where he was, and so that he wouldn't lose his job. This would all have been well and good once he got a phone call, because he could call one person and have them make the other calls.

Except they took his cell phone away, and he didn't know any of these numbers.

So here the guy is, rotting in a jail cell, and no one has a clue where he is. And he can't contact them until he fills out a request form to get his phone back, because every bit of helpful information he could want is in that phone right now.

Moral of the story: Don't get thrown in jail. I'm not too worried myself, of course, because a) I'm generally a law-abiding person, and b) when I fail to abide by the law, I don't leave witnesses or survivors. Still, there are dangers. For future reference, if you're ever trying to contact me and it seems like I have vanished from the face of the earth, it's safe to assume I have surrounded by a bunch of tall people who took my phone and decided to play keep away.