it's almost noon!

and what have i done for the past 2 1/2 hours (have you noticed that 2 1/2 hours looks a lot longer than 2.5 hours?) anyhoos......I've been on the phone (well, actually 2 phones) with my cell phone provider (which will remain anonymous to avoid any comments about better providers).

and why, you may ask, would it take 2 1/2 hours (it does look more impressive written that way) to fix anything involving a cell phone? and what, you may ask, could possibly have been broken?

the why:
she's from the south (you need to say this with a slow, hollywood actress, southern drawl) and speaks and types like a true southern belle from the early 1800s. i like the southern accent and all, but i'm from southern california and we lost the ability to move slowly and enjoy life with the introduction of the freeway system. i swear i lost brain cells waiting for her to finish a sentence. "i.....'m.....going.......to........put.......you.............on.......... hold...........now................okay?" (which i always want to answer "no" but i don't cuz i want to eventually have a cell phone that functions)

the what:
i could send texts but not receive them which kind of defeats the purpose of texting.

and.....

my voicemail box disappeared about a month or so ago which wasn't a big deal because everyone could just text me their messages but that didn't work so well this today

the solution:
2 1/2 hours later -
she fixed the texting thing with surprising speed ...only about 30 minutes hahahahahaha

the voicemail? God help me....2 hours! and this is the part i don't understand...voicemail comes with all rate plans and i used to have a voicemail box but she still needed to add it to my phone because when i got the new phone (which i didn't....i've had this phone over 2 years) they didn't add the voicemail feature. the free one..... the one that comes with all the rate plans...... the one i used to have...... the one that worked fine and just disappeared....

i did make the mistake of asking her why it wasn't automatically on the phones since it came with all the rate plans. that slowed her WAY down. there wasn't a little cue card with that question and answer on it for her to read to me. she actually put....me.....on......hold......okay?....while she asked "tech support guy"......

so now my phone has all the bells and whistles again and while i was at it, i got her to add the free voicemail to the other phone lines since their's had disappeared also and that makes me a SuperMom to my boys who didn't have the patience to deal with tech support.

and it's boy2's 17th birthday, so we're having a family dinner at Red Lobster....no cooking! and great food! and the company's not too bad either!

the day is looking better already!

and the award for the worst use of a cell phone goes to.....

...the obnoxious man at Ruby Tuesday's (which, by the way, is now on my list of great places to go) who is sooooo important that he must speak loudly on his cell phone throughout dinner.

last night, hubby, daughter and I went to dinner. across from us was the most adorable 3yr old and his dad. Dad was on the phone. Dad was on the phone and angry. Dad was on the phone, angry and becoming increasingly loud.

Daughter was signing at the little boy and laughing when the boy would repeat the signs. So she was signing things like "daddy is funny," "daddy is loud," etc. It kept the child entertained, cuz Dad was too busy being on the phone, angry and loud to pay any attention to the little one.

After about 20 minutes, a waitress asked Dad to speak softer as he was disturbing the other patrons. Dad finished the call and then rudely asked the waitress why she had told him to be quiet. She explained that he had been speaking VERY loudly and just wanted him to bring the volume down.

Throughout the rest of the meal, if the little boy made any sound at all, the Dad would say "shhh! we can't make any noise here." aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!

We just wanted to slap him and throw his cell phone into the vat of italian dressing. but the little boy did learn how to sign "daddy is funny"....so the night wasn't a total waste. hehehe

best use of a cell phone award

last night girl1 was texting a young man. he's a new interest in her life whom we haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet. boy2 (the 16 year old who has a wacky sense of humor) was trying to watch "prison break." you have to understand that when "Prison Break" is on; we're not allowed to talk, sneeze, fart, turn the pages of our books too loudly, etc. -- he's REALLY into the show.

so, anyways, she was texting and her phone kept beeping when NewMan responded. she refused to put the phone to silent or vibrate and boy2 was getting frustrated. I told him that i could get NewMan's number off the internet and girl1 was like "yea...right. you only know his first name." so i popped over to our cell phone records and pulled up all the current list of texting numbers. by now, girl1 was freaking but boy2 was soooo willing to start texting all the numbers until he reached NewMan.

NewMan made the mistake of responding and now girl1 and boy2 are texting him at the same time. girl1 is pleading with New-Man to stop encouraging boy2 and boy2 was being a total punk-- asking NewMan things like "so....you have the hots for my sis?" and "we're just sitting here discussing your sexiness" -- girl1 was mortified, but NewMan thought it was funny (scoring brownie points with the younger brother is always a good plan)

I couldn't stop laughing.....i wish i had a print-out of all the messages going back and forth between the 3 phones....or a pic of girl1 trying to push boy2's phone under the water in the bathroom sink...... the monthly charge for unlimited texting was well spent last night.

still smiling this morning.......good times....