These days you gotta be smarter than your smartphone

And apparently I am not. So we got new phones. The first set was the new Blackberry Pearl Flip. We didn't like the keyboard so we decided to go for the whole shebang and get the Blackberry Curve. At first we liked them. They have a full qwerty keyboard with ONE letter per key. They are Internet capable, have a nice camera, good call quality etc. However, after a couple days playing around with them we noticed a couple things we weren't so hot about. First, the battery life sucks. We had to plug them in every night! I guess if you're used to this it's no big deal, but we were used to plugging in our phones every few days, and to have the battery start to drain after a single call was disappointing. Next, and here's the biggie, we could barely figure out how to make a phone call, let alone texting and taking photos. Don't even get me started on trying to figure out how to change the ring tone. These phones are like a little computer you have never heard of before. They are so complicated, they actually offer a CLASS so you can learn how to use them. I have not felt this stupid in a VERY long time. I consider myself a relatively intelligent person, not a genius, but certainly able to keep up with most. I found myself saying, "Remember when you could just pick up the phone and call someone by dialing numbers? Remember when texting just involved typing?" Now I am scrolling, highlighting, selecting, answering little prompt questions....getting lost in the layer after layer of menus trying to find the stupid "profile" button so I can turn the darn thing off vibrate...but I digress.
So, after the last three days of blundering around and feeling like a total idiot, I give up. I don't need Internet access from my phone. I don't need yet another way to check my email. I don't "tweet." I don't want fifty different ways to contact every person I know. I just want to make a call now and then. So, once again, I am off to the post office to send the smart phones back in return for...a dumber phone? Maybe. Or at least one that doesn't have me wishing for the days of rotary dials and cords again.