I’m pretty sure my first cell phone was a Nokia and was with US Cellular. I’ve also been a customer of Verizon, T-Mobile, Cingular and now AT&T. While switching numbers is always a pain, for some reason, I always found it exciting to get a new number, and I always tried to get the “coolest” number I could. When I moved to Princeton, NJ for seminary, the first day I arrived I was driving from the seminary out Quaker Bridge Rd to go to Red, White and Blue and find some cheap furniture for my dorm room. I can still picture the exact turn I made when I was speaking with the T-Mobile representative and she said, “Boy – did I find you a GOOD number.”
And it was. It ends in 4000. When I tell people my number, they often ask if there is an extension. It sounds like a business number. It’s my favorite phone number yet. And so when we moved out to California, there was no way I was getting rid of that number. Sure it’s a Princeton, NJ area code, but I’ll deal with that as long as I get to keep my cool number.
The only problem with my NJ area code, is that if you don’t have a cell phone, and you need to call me from Livermore, CA – well, that’s a long-distance number. And as far as I know, Sarah and I have no plans on getting a local land line. Doesn’t seem to be worth it. Sure, people can call my phone at work; but I don’t check my messages that often. So keeping my favorite cell phone number is great for me and makes my life easier, and it’s great if you have a cell phone. But for those folks in the church who may just have a land line, it’s not that convenient. And I have had some people from the church answer their phones very skeptically, because they see a New Jersey number in their Caller ID.
So, here’s the question: can I get a local Livermore number (925 area code) that somehow only exists to forward calls on to my cell phone?
I think that’s what Grand Central is supposed to be for, but they aren’t allowing any of their current beta users to offer invites anymore. It seems like there must be another service out there like Grand Central – I just don’t know what it is. Anyone have anything like this set up?