Phone Numbers

This morning I got an email asking me for my phone number. You see my friend recently updated his cell phone and hadn't gotten the numbers transferred from the old phone. So I started writing him back and realized, which number should I give him.

Sort of an interesting quandry. When I was little, I had one phone number. I had memorized my home number just in case I needed to get in contact with my house.

By the time I graduated from High School, I was up to 2 phone numbers. I had my home number still, but I had added a pager number (sometime I should write about how cool it was to have a pager watch).

During my mission, I added my first cell phone number. Suddenly, not only could people call my residence, they could call me directly. It also meant no matter where I was I was available.

Returning again to the US, I entered the workforce. That meant that in addition to the cellular and home numbers, I now had a number with an extension and fax number. Things were starting to get complicated.

After changing jobs a couple times, my cell phone migrated to an employer supplied cell. Ah, the vanity of it all. Now I had a phone that meant I was on call at all times, a phone with a direct dial to my desk (the extension was there as well if someone called the company), a fax number and the personal cell phone and home phone numbers. The only number no longer being used is the pager number.

Today, things haven't improved. The company where I'm at now, has a main number, my company cell, my direct dial, a fax number and a toll free number. All of which are appended as in my email signature line. I also still have my personal cell number and home phone number. In addition, people are able to reach out to me through Skype and a Google Voice number if they want to speak with me directly.

I think the only saving grace in all of this is the last number mentioned. My Google Voice. It has the ability to be programmed to ring all of the other numbers when a caller is attempting to reach me. Now, I have my concerns about using Google, but that's a post for another day, in the meantime. It's fantastic to have the ability to give out just one number, instead of more than a half dozen that have accumulated over the years.