First off, let me say, welcome to the 21st century.
Next why are those the phones you are looking at? I would recommend an Eris, here is why:
1. Within a couple years there will be no physical keyboards, touchscreen phones with a keyboard are just to help people transition. If this is your first cell phone, why start using an outdated technology instead of just starting with a touchscreen only phone. Think of a touchscreen phone with a keyboard as a combo VCR and DVD player, you still see them occasionally, but who still uses VHS? VHS = physical keyboard, DVD = touchscreen keyboard
2. My wife has the Eris. It was her first smart phone and she loves it. I have the Droid because after having iPhones for so long I needed the performance of the Droid even though I never open the keyboard. I like the look and feel of the Eris much better just not the performance.
3.Her Eris is running Android 2.1, my Droid is only running 2.0.1, took about 10 minutes to upgrade and much easier to do than on the Droid.
4. If you can wait a little while the Nexus 1 and HTC incredible will both be out soon for Verizon, both of which are better than anything Verizon currently offers if you want an awesome phone with all the power you could need.