WOWOWOW! First blog post!! Like for real this time!! It's not some silly little content posted to the front page of my website where it totally still is and totally doesn't belong!
What so funny is I was going to get these parts of my site updated yesterday (the plan had been tues --> get navigation and about me set up, wed --> get blog set up, thurs --> get resources set up, fri --> get links going) but instead my day got completely upended at like, seven in the morning!
I woke up several minutes before my alarm (as I usually do) and went to check the time, only to find my phone (miss Pixel 3) off and warm to the touch O_O which is not a great sign. I had plugged her in the night before when I put on a YouTube video so that she would be charged in the morning since her battery was low, and clearly that was a mistake, because it seems to have cooked her a little bit. As of right now, she still has not turned back on, but I've heard tales of old, overheated Pixel 3's coming back from the grave up to several weeks after their initial cooking, so I'm kinda hoping that she does! But we shall see!
So, after a good 40 minutes of panicked troubleshooting (shoutout to my beloved for doing the troubleshoot googling on my behalf), I finally came to the realization that yeah, my phone was cooked, and now I have to figure out what to do about THAT, because I do need my phone for my job (which I was now going to be running a bit late to since we had spent so long trying to revive miss Pixel). My boss works primarily out of the state, which means that, if he needs anything, he either text or calls me--which is great when you can't receive texts or calls! If he can't get ahold of me, he does usually call another employee here, but she doesn't actually get to work until 10, so like really and truly I do just Need A Phone, and I'm going to feel a lot better once I get one, so my plan is set:
One: go to work. I am the only person in my department, so if I'm not there, my coworker who comes in at 10 has to take care of it, and it just becomes a mess. I can go in, get my morning tasks done, and then dip, no problem.
Two: go back home. In order to get to work on time, I had to forgo coffee, breakfast, and packing a lunch, so I'd need at least coffee before starting this harrowing journey.
Three: go to my phone carrier. I am still on my parent's phone plan, so I am unsure if they'll be able to help me without mom or dad's approval, but I at least need to try. The plan was to see if they could fix my phone, or if I was SOL and needed a new one.
Four: get lunch. It'll probably be lunch time?
Five: go back to work. I will have a phone or a plan and be able to finish out my day.
But like, I wouldn't be blogging about it like it was a quote "harrowing journey" if it had been that easy, right? That's because it wasn't, and I was out literally all day:
8:00am -- I make it to work. I look like a mess, I feel like a mess, I get my morning tasks done, I stress about my plans for the day. A coworker (and friend) of mine talks to me about movies for a good while which helps distract me from my sense of impending doom.
9:00am -- I leave work, head home, drink some coffee, and stress more.
10:00am -- We leave, I drop my beloved off at the movie theater to watch Romulus again, and I head to the phone store. When I get there, I am directed back to talk to an associate, who then immediately tells me that I'm not authorized on the account and he can't help me. He tells me he'd normally just tell me to call whoever is the account owner but like...we're both staring at my bricked phone, so I leave.
10:20am -- I am now at my parents house, telling my mother my exhasperated tale. She sympathizes, her own phone broke this weekend and she had to do something similar. We text dad from her phone, and wait. He works in training and isn't usually at his desk, or even if he is, he often times isn't able to respond right away, but that's fine, he'll get back to us eventually. Mom makes us breakfast. I have another coffee.
11:40am -- Time was a blur between the first message and my final declaration, but somewhere along the way, my brother woke up, we all ate and chatted, dad called back and authorized me on the account, my brother got ready, and at this point, we are now ready to drive back to the phone store. Brother is accompanying in case I need to make a call, and I am eternally grateful that he did, not because we needed a call, but because I needed the emotional support.
12:00pm -- We are at the phone store. After a good ten minutes of waiting, we get called back. I am authorized! Also my phone is shot. Employee tells us he can sell us a new phone. I say okay. He presents me the Google Pixel 9, tells me the price, its not terrible, I ask what the price is on the 8. He tells me they have none. None. Captial N. Not like at this store, like at all the phone stores for my provider, because they just weren't selling, so they never ordered more. I say oh-kay, I guess I'll get the 9 then. He goes and gets it, brings it back out, and it won't scan. He goes to talk to his manager, and comes back to tell me that he cannot sell me the 9 that is sitting on the table in front of us, because it comes out in two days :| He tells me that if we bring him another phone, he can set it up for us, but that's about all they can do right now other than sell me the phone and ship it to my house (no thank you) or just wait. So we decide to scope out phones.
1:00pm -- Best Buy has no pixels. Costco has pixels, but only through a phone provider I do not have. My brother buys me a third coffee. All we can do it laugh. My beloved is out of the movie, so we drive back to the theather, back to my parents to drop my brother off, and then back home. I am exhausted. I have had toast and two coffees. I feel like I might explode. We make BLTs. I take my coffee, and I go back to work. Phoneless.
2:00pm -- I am back at work. My coworkers are shocked by my tale, but happy that I'm back. I go to sit at my desk and take care of what has built up while I was gone, and I suddenly feel like I am going to Explode. I am two and a half coffees deep, when I usually only ever drink one, AND I'm used to eating breakfast now. I message my beloved that I feel like I'm gonna no-clip or something. I dump the last quarter of my coffee out and swap to water. The jitters do not stop.
Somehow I make it through the rest of the day, make it home, and collapse. Normally, this is where I would sit on the couch and doomscroll for a while, but phoneless and exhausted, I cannot. Instead I tuck in at my computer and chug away at a navigation bar, which goes surprisingly well.
I am now on day two of no phone, because I'm a #PixelHead and I'm waiting for the 9 tomorrow. The plan is to leave before the store opens and be one of the first people in, but honestly I'm nervous. I don't want to find out that they all sold out while I sat on my ass the last two days, but I suppose we won't know until we know. Wish me luck y'all, and pls pray for miss Pixel 3's revival. I wanna load her up with shitty old mobile games if she comes back.
This whole situation is reminding me of a time when I was in like, middle school. My parents had been big proponents of the whole "kids dont need smartphones" thing that I honestly really agree with them on, because there was one summer where I stuffed my shity lil blackberry in my hoodie pocket and ran out into the ocean to go splash around and came back with No Phone. I was devastated at the time, no phone meant I couldn't text rp with my bestie, I couldn't roll my eyes at the overwhelming amount of times my boyfriend texted while we were apart for the summer. What was I supposed to do??
Obviously my parents told me they weren't getting me a new phone. I had no reason to have one with school being out, and I hadn't been responsible with the one I had--and for as upset as I was about it, I was okay with those consequences. I had fucked up and lost it, so yeah, it doesn't make sense for them to buy me a new one. They did wind up actually getting me a smartphone for my birthday that fall, because they said that it was likely time and I had been very mature about losing my old one, made them think I'd take good care of a more expensive one.
And I did! I have only ever had little micro scratches on my phones, never once a big crack or anything to break it like what happened yesterday. This is my first Major Blow in the phone world, and I suppose I do feel pretty grateful for that.
Anyway, I think that's all the yap I have about that. This page will likely get some editing once I get home (I'm off work in 4 minutes), but for now I think that wraps up blog post one! Woo hoo!
Posted on August 21st, 2024, around 4pm