Table Topics - The Case of the Disappearing Numbers

I love a good mystery to solve...until it affects me. A few days ago I was looking up a phone number in my cell phone and it was missing. Given my verbatim brain super powers, I could almost note the date and time I entered that number three weeks ago and was certain it was there before. I dismissed it as a blip in my powers and moved on.

A few hours later I was text messaging and noticed some of my recent texts were displaying phone numbers, not names. Hmmm, a sign those numbers were missing from my phone as well. Panic set in as I did some random searches of newly-added numbers and some numbers added over a year ago and realized I had an issue. I've lost numbers in the past by saving them inadvertantly to my phone instead of my sim card, but since I use the sim card exclusively, I've had no problems...until now. I don't really have a phone list or backup plan. I suppose if I lost my cell phone or my sim card died, I'd be doing what the rest of the world does and emailing folks to alert them I need their phone number and setting up Facebook "I lost my cell phone" groups to procure the forever lost numbers. I came to the stark realization of how dependent I am on my cell phone.

As a T-Mobile customer for almost nine years, the customer service folks love me. They were baffled by the problem but after a quick reset of my phone, the numbers mysteriously reappeared. It seems that my phone's software had some sort of glitch that caused these numbers to disappear, but the trusty sim card was protecting them all along.

Today's Table Topic question is this....

Do you depend on your cell phone for all of your contacts? If so, what is your backup plan?

I tried to recall what I did before a cell phone, and I think I had one of those cute little phone books tucked away in my purse. But honestly, most common numbers I committed to memory (see "verbatim brain" above). Technology is wonderful as long as it works.