My Week Without A Smart Phone...

Oh boy!  Let me tell you…a week without a smart phone (when you are used to having one) is quite the adjustment!  And it should NOT have been so much of an issue!  But boy oh boy was I in for a treat upon my arrival to the US! 

Prior to my leaving for the summer my iPhone had been acting up (like since Spring Break).  The home button wouldn’t always work and the map feature would ALWAYS stall (when it worked at all…75% of the time it wouldn’t even be able to locate where I was!).  Anyways, while I was home (and Dad was getting his phone taken care of) we thought it would be a good idea to send my phone away and get a new one.  Sounded like a good plan to me…and then it all fell apart.  I’ll try the “long story short” approach (if I can!).

DAY ONE:

It was the day I was leaving for WI and we brought the phone to Best Buy they had to send it away and it would be a few days before my new phone would be available.  Fine.  Whateve.  I just wanted a smart phone as a loaner phone.  They didn’t have one.  I wanted one.  They pulled a phone from inventory and made it a loaner.  Good.  Halfway to WI I was trying to call Dave and got the AT&T security line.  Hung up.  Tried again.  Same line.  Talked to someone.  Basically…my loaner phone was recognized as a stolen phone that should still be in the Best Buy inventory as a new phone.  ERROR = Best Buy Schaumburg.  The fix…bring the phone back.  Not an option.  Option 2…bring the phone to another Best Buy.  Could work.  Option 3…get a pay as you go phone from Walmart and just put my sim card into it.  Not really what I wanted to do. 

DAY TWO:

Dave’s at work and we are supposed to be leaving for Milwaukee this afternoon.  I know where the Best Buy in Kohler is.  I go there when it opens (10).  I meet with the phone girls right away.  They try to get it figured out.  They can’t.  They call Schaumburg.  No fix there.  No one seems to know how to fix this problem.  Best Buy #2 wants to just give me ANOTHER loaner phone that I can return to them (NOT an option as Kohler isn’t really on our way back to IL from the Milwaukee area).  Plus they don’t have smart loaner phones.  At 11:45 I leave to go check out of the hotel…leaving the phone with the girls at the store.  I return at 12:15 and they are STILL working with Schaumburg Best Buy to figure this out.  I finally leave at 1:30 with a non-smart loaner phone that I didn’t have to pay for and that the Schaumburg location will be responsible for mailing back to Kohler.  Grrr.

DAY THREE:

I realize that about 100-150 of my contacts are missing!  Not a happy camper!!!  I continue to complain to Dave at the situation.  Like he can really do anything about it.  He said that I should have caused more of a stink at the Kohler Best Buy…but really…it wasn’t their fault that the Schaumburg location totally screwed up!  It didn’t make sense to me to get mad at the girls trying their best (along with their manager) to help me. 

DAYS FOUR – SEVEN:

I get over the fact that I can’t check my email, update Facebook, or surf the internet and I learn that it’s okay…seeing as I’m with family I really shouldn’t be doing those things anyways (but rest assured I gave Dave a run for his money each time HE did any of those things…the same run he gave me before he was given the “crackberry” for work!).  By the end of our time in WI I was actually enjoying the break from the internet-connected world.  It was relaxing to not actually care about what all my “friends” on Facebook were up to or how many groupons I had in my inbox!

DAY EIGHT:

Dad to the rescue!  He received the email from Best Buy that my new phone was ready to be picked up…I left him to that as I had to go into work for the morning to get some curriculum planning done before I returned to Europe for the remainder of the summer!  While he was there they were able to find (don’t ask me how) my missing contacts…so everyone should be back in my address book as one big happy family!  :)  YEAH!

All in all, it was actually a great experience not having the “crutch” that I so often cling to in the States.  I realize that our time in the Dells and at the cottage wouldn’t allow for much cell service anyways…so even if I had the smartness of my iPhone it wouldn’t have been much good!  I feel like I’d like to do a no-technology week again sometime!  Just this next time it will be on MY terms…not my silly phone’s!  :)