I went 60 days without a phone. Not by some grand, "I'm off the grid" pledge. Just sort of fell into it when my phone wouldn't charge. I tried all the usual tricks: Paperclip up the port, different cords, getting the angle of the cord exactly precisely right by hiking it up over a book. This helped for a few days, then, nada. I dug out a phone a relative had given me but without a password that baby was good as a brick. I bought a cheap model from a department store but had to take it back because it didn't work with our network. I started sending friends messages on my husband's phone, saying This is Lisa, so they'd know it was me. It felt like the old days, with one phone per household. Turns out, it is safe to leave the house without a phone, though on more than one occasion I didn't "get bananas" or "warm up the tortillas." When talking to friends my pocket never buzzed, and I never thought Oh, I wonder who that is just kept talking as if our conversation was more important than some random notification I never got. Plus, I had one less thing to carry. "I like it better when you don't have a phone," my daughter told me. I like me more, too, I said. Two months later while visiting my parents in New Zealand, Dad told me about the guy in the mall. So I took it in. I haven't had a phone for 2 months, I said, like I should get a badge. He didn't care. Just plugged it in and it immediately charged. So I bought a $20 cord. Life without a phone, I said to a friend the other day, is like living in a small town in Mexico, inconvenient but better.