i’d been reading and reading about it, perhaps selectively. i am a phone-looker – i look at phones all. the. time. up until now, none of them have had that perfect combination of stuff (when i say “phone”, understand i mean “smartphone” and by that, i mean i want it all — internet, camera, social networking, music, video, games, gps, wifi, a real keyboard, you name it, i want it.)

and i’d been planning on leaving tmobile for awhile, though the reason why has (apparently) since been fixed – they finally got around to 3G-ing my area. the internet on my blackberry 8900 was freakishly, painfully slow. but, even knowing i could upgrade and get something with 3G, and even though tmobile has the Motorola Cliq with Android and a 5MP camera, all comparisons between the two consisted of disappointment with the Cliq and raves about the Droid.

i went to Best Buy to think about getting a Droid. hint: if you want to think about buying something, don’t stop hurriedly at a store on your way somewhere, pounce on the first salesperson you find, and start actually buying it. thinking about buying while in the process of buying is a terrible experience for both you and the salesperson you happen to be dragging through the twisted thought process that led you to buy while thinking about buying in the first place.

at one point, i changed my mind. something about insurance in case the screen cracked? my BlackBerry is virtually indestructible, i can put it in my jeans pocket and sit on it, i can toss it in my vast hellhole of a purse, it’s a sturdy workhorse of a device. what was i thinking, a phone whose entire front was a shimmering sheet of delicate *glass*? besides i knew i shouldn’t buy it anyway, i was supposed to wait until my tmobile contract was up, i was going to do Xmas first and me later, and didn’t i just buy a fucking computer? i did. but by the time i changed my mind, the deposit was already processed. “i don’t even know how long it’ll take for them to refund the deposit”, said the beleagured salesperson, “no one’s ever done this before.”

so i dithered awhile longer. i asked about cases, he showed me this plastic thing that didn’t have any protection for the screen at all. i said, what? are you kidding me? i opened my purse to illustrate the issue at hand, 5 pounds of miscellaneous crap, all pointy and hazardous, and said, i need something that will protect the phone. a *case*. i picked up a real phone case (holster, holder, whatever) and showed him. “like this,” i said. so he brought a nice leather case, and, well, i bought a Droid.

i have 30 days to take it back, and i am either totally going to do that, or … you know, not.

i have spent the past six hours literally unable to put it down. my hands hurt. i am amazed, annoyed, and a little bit in love with it.

i’ll follow up tomorrow with something less insane and hopefully more informative about my potential future ex-phone, but right now it’s kinda late and it’s over there whispering “droid” to me in that sexy, husky robovoice, and i need to go see what it wants.