Instant Messaging cost me $150 this month. Yep, one hundred and fifty bucks.

Here’s how …

After switching from satellite Internet, our wireless network here at ranchero indebto was down for a while. While I previously used Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to have my PC act as the network router, I dumped that setup after moving to cable (performance was horrible with ICS). But I didn’t have the chance to get out to the store to pick up a router/firewall … so no router, no wireless network, no instant messaging.

Of course, this disrupted the family routine. While I had a speedy connection out in the studio, the laptop was without a connection in the house. This drove my daughter absolutely nuts. She was miserable without her AIM fix–life without instant messaging is tough for a pre-teen!

But then she discovered that she could instant message on Mom’s mobile phone.

She complained quite loudly–at first–about not having any Internet connection in the house. And then she grew curiously quiet about it. I mean, she REALLY complained at first. I guess I should have paid more attention to her sudden change of demeanor. For when she found out she could instant message to her hearts delight with Mom’s phone, it was the beginning of the end (of the $150 that I didn’t have in the first place).

Imagine my surprise when I went to the snail mailbox today … I thought it was a bit odd that my T-Mobile bill arrived in a 9 x 12 inch envelope (when it usually comes in a #9 or so). I thought it quite curious, not just in the size of the envelope, but the heft, as well. It didn’t look like any mobile phone bill I’d ever seen, no sir. I figured it was some kind of marketing offer or perhaps some updated paperwork. Little did I know it would be a big fat bill filled to the gills with instant messaging charges.

Now when I say big fat bill, I’m not using the term lightly. My mobile phone bill was fifty-two pages long this month.

That’s right. Fifty-two pages long. Fifty-two pages crammed, I mean crammed with instant messaging charges.

When I picked my daughter up after school, I asked her for the mobile. I put the phone in my coat pocket and didn’t say another word until we pulled in the driveway, when I said “hey, something came in the mail for you today.”

I gave her the bill after we walked into the kitchen. She was dumbfounded. I didn’t raise my voice or have a single cross word. I just explained that she would have to work off the debt.

Come to think of it, $150 for a months worth of instant messaging charges isn’t a bad trade for six months of laundry services and dish washing. :)

[April 3, 2004 - UPDATE!]