It is with a Heavy Heart....

that I bid adieu to my circa 1984 TeleQuest HotLips telephone with my original home phone number still in the window.  I don't believe I received this phone in 1984 though.  I think I received it around '85 or '86, maybe not, but if so, does that mean my parents bought it on clearance? Mom, Dad, did you?  I can't believe that this phone ever saw a minute on the clearance rack because it is just too fabulous.  I can reveal, however, that I received it for Christmas, which, if I were so inclined, I could research and find the exact year and then satisfy everyones curiosity on this point.  This phone started out residing in my pink and black bedroom next to my daybed.  I would sit on this phone for hours and talk to my friends.  I even spent a good hour and a half talking to a boy who called and never gave me his name.  I still have no idea who he was, and sometimes I wonder about him.  Did he think I was one of my sisters?  Was it a wrong number?  Was he meaning to call me?  Never mind, it's not important, what's important is that we made a connection, and that connection was made via my lips phone.  This is also the phone that I used when Reed was on his mission.  He wrote me a letter and gave me his phone number and then was a little upset when I called him.  Who knew there was  an eight hour time change and that I would wake up the whole house and infuriate his companion?  Oh well, water under the bridge.  My HotLips phone would get packed up and move with me throughout my married life.  I uncovered it one day when our other phone broke, several years ago, and it was a glorious reunion.  We have been together ever since.

Mostly it would sit next to my bed, like old times, but sometimes I had to bring it out to the kitchen.  These are the times when Reed would fuss.  He has always been jealous of the bond between my phone and I.  He doesn't understand the talks we've shared, the tears we've cried, the gossip we've heard.  That phone knows more about me than most people in my life and it deserves some respect.  This is why, instead of going in the trash, it will be lovingly packed and stored in my cedar chest with the rest of my valuables.  One day, it will resurface and make another little girl very happy.  Only as a pretend phone though, because it is good and broke.  So it is with a mournful heart that I set out to find a replacement.  No phone could ever really replace it entirely, but I found a decent substitute:
Granted it is not nearly as whimsical, but it represents middle-aged me.  It is still lovely in its own right but it has a sense of maturity that the HotLips telephone lacked.  The kids already have big plans for this phone.  I hope I can get one phone call in before they get their paws on it.  That first call will be to my dear husband, who I will tell with a tear in my eye, that the HotLips phone has been retired and been replaced with something a bit more "high brow."