UNTIL NOW! I’ve never been close to my 250 measly minutes (plus 1000 nighttime minutes) but this month I spent enough time talking to my buddy Greg to go over 107 minutes. That’s a lot of flapping my gums about ham radio, and I haven’t even been on the radio that much lately. 107 minutes is $48.15 extra, which, according to friends who know families with teenagers, is NOTHING. I guess $200 to $300 monthly cell phone bills are normal for kids in the ‘burbs.

In any case, going over $48.15 is pretty pathetic for a guy without a girlfriend, but it sure doesn’t match my old long distance bills. In Japan I’d pay about $200 per month for my phone including long distance and pay-per-minute local charges. But I did have a girlfriend for part of that time. Or so I thought.