A Cell Phone Tale...Really

Last fall, we changed cell phone plans and Nadia came home with these fancy new cell phones.  I mean they could do it all…texting, pictures, music.  I accidentally left my phone at home one day, when I got back…it had painted the house.  That’s how incredible these new phones are!

When she first brought the phones home, I was like, “…Yeah, whatever.  They’re nice.  That’s cool, but it doesn’t matter to me.”  In fact, at the time, part of me would prefer not have a cell phone.  I don’t necessarily like being available to people all the time.  (Actually, there aren’t that many people who are dying to reach me, but just pretend to accept that last sentence at face value.)

But you know what?  Then I started texting, and taking pictures with the phone, and posting things on line.  And very quickly…well, I’m a little embarrassed…but very quickly, I got to where I really liked it.  In fact, I loved my new phone.

Around Christmas, I was walking in the door at my sister-in-law’s house and I was carrying a bunch of things, including my phone and a large cup of iced tea.  And in a strange fluke of an accident, I dropped my phone and it fell right into the iced tea!

I was heart broken.  Electronic gadgets don’t do well when they’re submerged in liquids.  (You knew that already, didn’t you?)  My phone was dead.  That phone that initially I didn’t care that much about…?  Now, I loved it.  Now I was sad and crying.

We used a blow dryer on it. 

Nope, it was dead. 

We buried it in rice because that’s what people told me to do.

Nope, it was dead.

We gave it a paint brush and tried to coax it into doing some painting.

Nope, it was dead.

Finally, I took it to the phone store and told the guy, “I dropped it in a cup of iced tea.”

He said, “You’re not supposed to do that.”

I said…“Really?”  

(That’s my famous response to everything… “Really?”)

Anyhow, for a fee, they replaced the phone and I was happy again. 

But wait, then my brand new phone—the new replacement phone—began to have some problems.  So, I took it in last week to the phone store.  And the guy at the phone store looked at it and he said, “Oh yeah, I’m familiar with this model.”  Laughing, he said, “We had this dumb guy in here back in December who dropped one of these into a cup of iced tea.  Can you believe it?"

And I said…“Really?”

Today, the “new replacement” of the “first replacement phone” came in and I went to the phone store so they could…I don’t know…do their thing that they had to do.  (I hope I didn’t lose anyone with that sophisticated technical description.)

They transferred all of my contacts and pictures, etc. over to the new replacement of the first replacement phone.  And the guy at the phone store said, “Take care of this one, I don’t think we’ll be able to get you another one.”

I said, “No problem.  I’m really careful with my phone.”

But I don’t think he believed me…really.