On the outside, I try to project an image of having it all together. But underneath that, I'm kind of a disaster. Hence... the name of the site: GlossyVeneer. Last weekend I lost my iPhone.
Let me reiterate that so you can feel my pain.
LOST… MY… iPHONE!!!!!
I had the phone in my hand, using the maps to navigate to where we were headed. We arrived at a Pei Wei for lunch and I thought I had tucked my phone into the pocket on the front of my purse. We went into the restaurant, ordered food and sat down to eat. Suddenly I had a premonition to check my purse for my phone, and before I did so I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, knowing I wouldn’t find it.
I said to my husband, “We need to go to the car.”
He chastised me, “Finish eating your food.”
I begrudgingly shoved part of a fortune cookie in my mouth and said, “Now!”
So we went outside and looked around the car and the passenger seat, but it revealed what I already knew… my phone was gone. In anger and frustration I threw the remains of my cookie on the ground, violently.
I have two possible scenarios of what happened:
1) I didn’t actually put the phone in my purse, but instead set it on my lap. When I got out of the car, the phone fell to the ground without my noticing. Someone picked it up and decided to play finders-keepers.
2) I did put the phone in my purse but didn’t zip the pocket closed, as I have a habit of not doing. The phone was sticking out of the pocket and someone plucked it out while we waited in line to order. I was using a purse that slings across my person, I often push it behind me, out of sight.
I had a mini meltdown, it felt like the world was over. Not only do I use that damn thing all the time and it feels like an extension of me, but it’s a pretty expensive gadget and I’m not at a point in my contract where I am eligible for an upgrade, so replacement would be even more expensive. Plus the fact that I had a 16 GB iPhone 3G, a model they decided to stop making when they released the new 3Gs meant that I couldn’t do a straight replacement. I was angry with myself, feeling like I was the most irresponsible person alive and frustrated with myself, because my brain has been feeling like it is on the fritz lately.
Fortunately my husband did not have a meltdown and kept a level head. He contacted AT&T and stopped service on my number for the day, just to give us a chance to see if we could find the phone. When it didn’t turn up, he said to me, “Okay, time to go get you a new phone.”
The nice salesperson at the AT&T store informed us that we could add a 3rd number to our account, thus being eligible to buy a phone for the lower price (sooooo glad I didn’t have to pay $699+). Because of this I got a shiny new iPhone 3Gs, we have another cell number we could use for some random purpose and I was only without phone service for about 24 hours. The world didn’t end, I’m not destitute, nobody was hurt and my husband wasn’t upset with me.
But man… the incident felt pretty traumatic.
*Title reference: From the movie Idiocracy
