On Monday, after months of coughing and headaches, I went into my doctor's office and demanded that they test me for something other than allergies. After the subsequent poking and prodding and an x-ray, I learned that I had walking pneumonia and had to miss one of my favorite excuses to dance and enjoy adult beverages, St. Patrick's day. I was also warned that if I didn't stay home and rest, I would be put in the hospital. Interesting, I wonder if they give you Flonase® for a ruptured spleen in the hospital if you don't tell them you have a ruptured spleen?
On Tuesday, I got a call from my mom. Before she received her cancer diagnosis, she lost her home to foreclosure and her only mode of transportation was repossessed. She relocated to a former workshop next to Aunt Hel's home in Scotland, Texas.
Here is a picture of the outside:
And one of the inside:
Her new home has electricity but no running water or phone service. One of the hardest things I have had to come to terms with over the last few months, is that this is my mom's home, and nothing I can do right now can change that fact.
On Monday, she found out that the person she was getting her phone service from was going to probably pull out. She wanted to know if I could add her to my plan. Imagine the problematic conversation when I tried to explain the complex rules of cell phone math to her. Let's just say that I ended up simply stating "I love you mom, and will take care of it." Not wanting to open up a new plan of service, I had hoped I could just add another line to my current plan. However, I didn't have an extra phone.
Once again, I was amazed by the charity of people. I got her call on Tuesday, and subsequently sent an email to all the staff in our agency to see who had a "Sprint enabled phone" that I could send her. I got over 15 phones and even more replies that included "Erin, I want to help but my server isn't Sprint" or " Erin, I just gave my old phone away..I wish I would have kept it."
Before I go into detail about the frustration factor of the day, I would like to say Thank you to everyone who gave me your old phone and also to those of you who simply wish you could.
Fast forward to Friday, I went down to the local Sprint store and dumped all the phones out on the table. I then proceeded to explain that I wanted to activate one and add it to my current line of service. Heck, I even told them they could pick the one they wanted to activate (after all it was Good Friday). After explaining no less than 3 times that I did not want or need a new phone, that I simply wanted to add a line to my current plan, and that I did in deed just want to use one of the ones laying out before us, the customer service representative called the magic phone fairy at some place I refer to as the secret headquarters of Sprint, and they conversed for about 39 minutes and 22 seconds regarding my "situation". Then and only then I was told that Sprint no longer allows one to "simply add a line of service" without entering into a brand new contract.
I usually pride myself on my ability to remain calm and collected when confronted with complicated situations. This was not one of those moments. Rather than embarrassing my self by re-depicting the scene, I will just say it all with the following picture that does a good job of summarizing the event:
On Saturday, Petey and I did our normal cruise around the area to get our coffee and tacos. The day started out relatively sunny as I got my vente coffee with hazelnut syrup and Petey got his chocolate flavored milk bone. We then went to the taco place, ordered our breakfast, and then pulled up to the drive through window when I was greeted, rather gruffly by the server. She grinned as she turned around and took my money. However, her T-shirt made me take pause.
In big bold letters it first read, "THANKS!". I began to grin thinking that was a nice way to market your store, but then I read on. In lower case letters and in a smaller font than the rest of the shirt said,"but I really don't care." Wow! What a honest depiction of the service industry.
Imagine her surprise when I took my food and said, "THANKS", grin, "but I really don't pay."
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