Anger is Exhausting

Upon rising this morning I checked my email and thought I might still be dreaming.  The long awaited email from Apple had just hit my inbox.  The iphone 4 's that I reserved 10 days ago had arrived!  I felt like I had won the lottery!  I had to bring my credit card, photo id, and current iphone to the Apple store within 24 hours to claim my right to purchase these phones.  One for me, and one for my daughter for her 17th birthday, which was a week ago.

As soon as humanly possible we took off for the Kahala Mall, on the other side of the island to claim our treasure.  It is Saturday, and traffic was bad.  It took forever to get there.  I was starving and I am not my best with low blood sugar.  I thought that I would get there, get the set up process started, and go fetch food. I wanted my new iPhone 4 more than food.  Parking wasn't any better than the traffic.  It turns out there was some event at the mall today, hula, fashion show, booths, all kinds of stuff and people.  That place was a zoo.

As usual, the Apple store was crowded.  The stage with all the hullabaloo was just outside the door, so it was also loud in there.  After waiting for like a hundred years, well, maybe only 10 minutes, Mike came out to help us.  He went behind those magic silver doors and emerged with 2 perfect brick shaped white boxes.  I think I started to drool at this point.  They were so close, I could have reached out at grabbed them.  Mike struggled to find a signal, ironic how even in their own store they have to struggle for those bars, and brought up my account.  His magic iPod brought up a foul message - "User is a business customer and is blocked from making upgrades at this location.  Please contact a business care representative for assistance."  Or some such nonsense like that

  and then my head exploded .....

Seriously?  Seriously?  An AT&T business customer with multiple lines gets WORSE service than a consumer account?  Because I give them MORE they offer me LESS?   Inconceivable, and that word does mean what I think it does!  In all the racket I dialed a quick 611 on my outdated, slow as molasses, iPhone 3G.

    NOTE:  Before I updated the software on my 3G I was very happy with it's performance.  With the latest software update it is so slow I want to drop kick it while waiting for a text message to send.  It will ring at least 4 times before my blue tooth recognizes it and I nearly miss calls if I want to answer with the ear piece. I think getting 3G users to update their phone with the 4 software was a giant marketing move.  Get people to fall in love with the new features, like folders, and multitasking, then slow their phones down so they can't wait to get the new iPhone 4.  If that software worked well, I would have been content to wait for the frenzy to die down and then upgrade.  That's an A+ for the marketing staff.  I took the bait and swallowed it whole, even with the manipulation plot clear in my mind.

The poor guy at AT&T that answered my call.  Low blood sugar and high expectations shattered does not a happy Wendy make.  While the kids went to fetch some Arby's, I explained, complained, and drained every resource available.  Could I switch my plan from business to consumer?  How would that effect my rate plan?  Was it worth it?  Could I find an AT&T store on the island with any iPhone 4's in stock?  That would be an exercise in futility.  In the end there were two choices - buy the phones at $699 each or order them directly from AT&T and wait, ANOTHER 7 + business days.  By now I had enough food in me to realize that price was ridiculous, even for a gadget freak like me.  So, kicking, screaming, whining, and crying, I succumbed to the rules, and ordered the phones.  All my  expressive anger earned me free Fed Ex shipping, no small thing when you live in Hawaii, and any activation fees, and other such nonsense charges waived. I walked into that mall full of anticipation, and I walked out angry and disappointed.  

I still don't understand why AT&T punishes their best customers by giving them the least service opportunities.  It would have been nice if the Apple employee who took my reservation for the phones would have told me that I couldn't buy them from them if I was a business customer.  It still would have been ridiculous, but at least I wouldn't have waited 10 extra days, and wasted all my time and gas driving across the island today. The nice young man on the phone, who earned his meager pay and then some today, explained that the Apple stores are just not set up to handle the needs of business customers.  No JOKE!@  All I NEEDED was a couple of phones - how hard is that??? 

I'm still angry, and it's exhausting. 

Shadows of Change

Technically the season now is Summer, but in my life this is a season of change.  Continuous, perpetual change.  One day is never just like the next. Each day is a new adventure.  The mystery of life continues to unfold.

I'm ok with that.  It makes life interesting, and far more entertaining than any TV show.  Who needs external entertainment, just observe my life.

The high lights of last week were:  Two weddings (one Elvis, one Beach);1 funeral, of the Samoan variety; Quincie's 17th birthday, complete with accompanying party and dinner; and a good friend arrived from Utah for an extended visit.  And those are just the highlights, I won't bore you with the mundane details of the rest of my schedule.

When I walked in the door to the chapel for the funeral I was greeted by the widow in a beautiful all-white dress.  As I looked around I saw that all the family and many of the guests were also dressed in white.  Tears sprang to my eyes as the beautiful meaning in this came to my mind.  They were thinking about heaven, and joining their loved one there some day.  As I looked across the rows of family all sitting shoulder to shoulder, in gleaming white, it could have been a scene in the Temple.  I will never look at funerals the same way.  From now on, I'm wearing white. What a perfect way to express the meaning of life and death.

Oh, and I started learning Tai Chi.  I figured I would start with a DVD in my living room before doing anything like that in public.  It's really hard for me to move slowly.  I am always ahead of the instructor.  Suppose there is a message in that??  I kinda think there is.  The movements are very slow and soft.  I am amazed at the profound effect they have.  I am not 20 pounds lighter, and I still don't have perfect 6-pack abs, but the results are noticeable.  It makes me feel calm, relaxed and peaceful.  That is no small feat.  It's kinda like how the mango salsa is a miracle because it makes me actually enjoy eating fish.  Tai Chi could be called, the Miracle Workout, because it achieves what nothing to date has in my life - calmness. Normally if I am that calm, I am asleep.  I do think I might be getting taller because of it.  All the stretching and posture changes might have given me another inch of height.  How cool is that?

A couple weeks ago I was at the beach by myself late in the afternoon.  The shadows were doing cool things on the sand and I started taking pics.  Here is one that I thought turned out well.  I call it - Self Portrait in Shadow and Sand.  Very original and creative title, don't ya think?

It's been 17 Years

 I loved the book, We Help Mommy, and I was mesmerized by the images of the little girl.  Since the time I was very small I wished for a blond haired, blue eyed baby doll of my very own. Seventeen years ago today my sweet angel Quincie Elizabeth was born.  I love being her Mommy.

Quincie is the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I know.  It's an honor to call her daughter.