patience butterfly

Today I was reminded of how important it is to practice patience. I had a full day planned which included; my morning job search, a 3 mile run, a freestyle swimming lesson, helping Heather move into her new apartment and meeting with a friend for dinner before she moves cross-country in 4 days. There was little-to-no room for goofing off today. When the sensor function on my cell phone was dysfunctional, I figured it was time to go and get a new one with my warranty before the entire cell phone died. As I was walking out the door on my way to the nearest Verizon store, I stopped and thought consciously about writing down the numbers I wouldn't be able to replace. I have been using my phone as a Rolodex, which I'm sure most of us do. I had contacts in there from countless networking meetings I have had over the past 6 months. I think you might know where this is going.


So I got to the store hoping they could just transfer the info and send me out the door and on my way with a new phone. After inspecting the phone, the lady gave me the song and dance about how they might not be able to replace my phone for free since the water spot indicated damage. This was annoying to me since I knew my phone had never been in water! I told her that the only moisture was probably from sweat in my back pocket on a hot day and that there was NO water damage. She told me the sensor button probably would work if I had a software upgrade. She started to talk about cost and I told her that was lame. Seriously? Software? What happened to simple cell phones? Usually I try to be nicer in these situations, but the store was packed and I felt irritated that she was trying to tell me my extended warranty was useless. She sensed my panic and went to her boss. They would plug the phone into the software upgrade machine and if it was fried in the process, they would replace the phone for free. They would also be able to save my numbers in this process. Yeah.... Success.... I waited for about 15 minutes while I thought the software upload was occurring. She came back to me with an apologetic look on her face and informed me that the phone wouldn't even boot up and that I wouldn't be able to retrieve my numbers. First thing I thought was, "I should have written down those numbers!" I knew this was going to happen. I was visually disturbed and the manager came around to try and appease me by getting me a new phone and out the door.

So I left and tried to get over my losses. I needed to somehow get a few numbers so I could set up dinner plans for the evening. I dialed someone at my work and came to find out that they were unable to hear me when I used my NEW phone. Yep. It was broken. Back to the Verizon store I went with my friend Temojai (she was giving me the lesson) and we would resolve this before heading to the pool. Back to the zoo of a store. I swear something about cell phone stores makes my skin crawl... almost like buying a car at a dealership or something. Anyways, after determining the phone was broken, they proceeded to try 2 other phones that also did not work. It was actually starting to be amusing at that point and there were others in the store laughing at the situation. This model was no longer clicking with me and frankly I was SO relieved when one of the workers said she would get me the new and improved model. After she worked out the details, I went home with a SUPER COOL new phone. No numbers, but a much sturdier, improved design, silverish black phone that actually seemed worth the trouble. Or at least that is what I am telling myself now. Yay for patience!


My new chocolate-