I just purchased a new phone online (my current one desperately needs to be retired), and had to extend my contract to get the upgrade price. This means that I'm going to be giving T-Mobile business until at least 2010...and that got me to thinking.

The most constant aspect of my life for the past several years has been (drum roll please) my cellular provider. Is that incredibly sad to anyone else? Everything else in my life has changed (excluding family, and even then relationships have fluctuated over the years) - my car (or lack thereof), hair, friends, city of residence, career path, weight, significant other...and on and on. But my cell phone for some reason has been a different story.

I signed up with T-Mobile before they were actually called T-Mobile; anyone else remember the VoiceStream days? I opened an account in 2000, which means that I have been making payments to the company for over 30% of my life. I can't say that about any other area of my life - I tend to be a bit finicky and flighty, not the most loyal of customers. It's not even as if I've had a great experience with T-Mobile. It certainly hasn't been horrible, but I have had some occasional issues with their service. Maybe you're thinking that I've been trapping myself into the affiliation by upgrading and changing plans continuously (and thus being forced to extend my contract), but that's not true either. My contract has expired a few times, and I always voluntarily stayed, no verbal abuse necessary.

It turns out I've been in a steady, exclusive relationship for eight years, and I didn't even know it. It could quite possibly be the healthiest relationship in my life - we have our ups and downs, but we always manage to work it out. T-Mobile, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think I love you.