I'm a loser...

I'm a loser.

 I lose everything. 

Well not everything... but a lot of things. In fact I lose things so frequently that if I can't find something, I assume I lost it.

 I'm terrible about remembering my purse, so I don't usually carry one... My theory is, if I put in that little bag... my phone, my wallet, my ID, my money, etc. then if I lose the ONE bag, I lose EVERYTHING. I'm better off just risking the loss of one thing at a time... right?

But... it then becomes a burden on my friends... If we have to dress up. Not usually my preference I'll have you know. 

I'm not a big lipgloss, extra makeup, brushes, teeth whitener (yes some girls carry whitening strips in their purses...and probably more than you think) etc person, so usually I just need someone to hang on to my ID and a credit card, and my phone. Or, I wear clothes with pockets. Like boys. But as I mentioned there are times when I'm not allowed to wear clothes with pockets. 

For example. One night in college, I was peer pressured into going out on a Saturday night. Don't get me wrong, I had my fair share of nights out in college, usually Fridays, but for the most part, I liked to stay in and clean my friends dorm rooms while they went out. No joke. 

1. their rooms were filthy.

2. I lived in "temporary housing" for the first semester so I didn't have a dorm room. Vicarious living...

3. "going out" tops weren't a staple in my wardrobe.

  (I also liked to get up early and wake them up wearing silly outfits, singing songs very loudly as I jumped on their beds. In my defense they always promised Friday night that we would get up really early for tailgating, and then every Saturday morning when I tried to hold them to their word, they pulled the covers over their heads and yelled obscenities at me :) 

#3 was what really annoyed my friends. 

(wearing those pants in public might have been a close second...)

One of the few times I gave into their taunting and agreed to go out on a Saturday night, it turned into a wardrobe debacle. Apparently jeans and a t-shirt weren't the protocol. Black pants - were required for Saturday nights. This was frustratingly explained to me as one girl rummaged through her Saturday night attire section of her closet for a new outfit I would wear, while the others pulled out my pony tail to give it some curl, and smeared a variety of colors on my eyelids.

I have to admit... I did look the part - Saturday night floozy - but I wasn't happy about it. Needless to say, those fitted black pants did NOT have any pockets, nor did the flouncy, open back handkerchief of a top they made me wear. So... it was their civic duty to carry all my crap, unless they wanted me to put back on my jeans... They carried my crap. And have ever since :) 

But they're not always around, and so it has become one of the pains of "growing up" that I keep track of my own crap. 

I'm not doing a very good job.

 I lost my phone charger soon after I started this whole nothingnewforayear thing... I've been carting my laptop with me everywhere because I do have the cord that can charge my phone through my computer. 

The un-forseen advantage of this is the fact that I'm constantly updating and backing up files... the disadvantage of course is that I have to haul out my computer every time I want to charge my phone.

Along with the cell phone charger, went my kindle charger. They were one in the same. Actually a great product. It had a different hole for both the phone and the Kindle in the SAME charger. Pretty ingenious for a girl like me who doesn't do well with a lot of things to remember. That is, until I lost it. 

But now I'm torn. My Kindle is rendered useless until I get it charged which would require a purchase. My phone I can manage with my computer - but lugging my computer out at the airport just to charge my phone is getting kind of ridiculous. Especially considering I will be spending most of the fall traveling... not the most convenient of places. 

I guess we're back at the great Kindle Debate - which was never really answered... Do they sell used chargers like this down at the Salvation Army? or are used books from AmVets the way to go? 

In lieu of the anticipated response from my mother... I've already tried this one:

St. Anthony, St. Anthony

 I've been looking around, 

I've seem to have lost my chargers and they can't be found

Good Karma :)

So this happened....

The pain is real, even if nobody knows....

Good news. The lady at AT&T knows. She said I could
A. get a "lame" phone until next March when I'm due for an upgrade.
B. See how much it costs to fix the screen
C. Go to Apple and see what they say... she got me an appointment... that night.

Fashion Valley Mall is a very nice mall. Parking there on a Friday night is not very nice. Between the Cheesecake Factory couples out on dates, to the movie going duos, girls looking to have their nice foreign boyfriends buy them nice foreign expensive clothes, to the idiots like me who HAVE to go there, it's certainly a venue where I can lose my marbles.

However, desperate times call for desperate measures. I show up early for my 8:20pm appointment and sit down at one of the tables with a computer. Just for kicks I google replacing the screen on an iPhone. Turns out Apple can do it for about $200, someone on Craigslist might be able to fix it for about $75-150 or you can try your hand at it yourself. Umm... we can clearly see what my hand does to an iPhone, so that was out.

About that time, a nice young man named Jason came over and asked how I was doing. I jokingly told him a story about an instance I had on an airplane recently. Apparently my voice "carries" and is "penetrating" as told to me by a fellow passenger... Much to my chagrin, I didn't think it was penetrating enough to shatter my iPhone... he played along and gave me a chuckle. not my best joke, but at least I wasn't being a jerk like the guy next to me.

I was taking full responsibility for my klutzy ways, and was sure they would "blacklist" me for such behavior (breaking the iPhone - although bad jokes probably do the same)ha

No tears, no pleading, no begging, no nonsense. I'm a klutz Jason, what do I do? Get a better case? Don't drop it he said. Point taken.

He pulled up my account on his beautifully well taken care of iPhone and within a few seconds looked at me and grinned. I thought for sure he was going to tell me that when I bought a computer from them a few months back I promised to come in and take classes (it gets you a discount)... but I have yet to actually attend any classes... I was due for a lecture.

Instead...

Jason looked at me, smiled and said... today is your lucky day. I'm going to replace your iPhone. For free.

I could have cried just then, but I just can't seem to muster tears for much other than sappy country love songs. However, I genuinely thanked him and explained how this really was for a good cause... then I pulled up the blog and explained to him what I was trying to accomplish this year and that spending $675 on a new iPhone certainly wouldn't fly. Originally I thought about pulling up the blog first in hopes that he would feel sorry for me, but I hate to be that person. So I held out... and it worked.

Ironically enough Jason looked at me and said... you know I was just talking to a friend of mine the other day about how wasteful our country is and how I'd like to be better at not being wasteful.

It was like divine intervention for us both. I hope he felt as though his good deed for me, was at least part of a greater good deed that will go on all year. We took a picture on the new phone of Jason holding the shattered one, but unfortunately when I restored my phone, it disappeared. I wish I could show you the nice young man who single handedly made this blog possible this weekend, but maybe it's better you imagine Jason however you imagine one of the most wonderful Apple employees this side of the Mississippi :)