It’s hard to believe I’ve had a cell phone for almost 10 years. How did I ever live without it? Before I got one, all I did was want one. I begged and begged my parents until they finally relented and got me probably my favorite phone of all time: one that had Snake (the game!) on it.
I thought after I got the cell phone my problems would be over. Then started my years long experience of #firstworldproblems with my phone.
I can laugh about it now (sort of…) but one of my biggest cell phone problems happened last Thanksgiving. My dad and I were meeting at an airport coming from different directions to spend a few days together. When my dad simply said that we’d meet at the baggage carousel, I thought nothing of it. This is my dad we’re talking about: he knows all.
Then enter in Thanksgiving Day 2011. I land at the airport, eager to see my dad, give him a huge hug and tell him about my awful seat mate (oh yeah, and celebrate Thanksgiving). My phone was dead (natch) so I just went straight to baggage, picked up my 49.5 lb suitcase and looked around for my dad.
Ok, no Dad to be seen. Luckily, I found a charger and an outlet. I plugged in my phone and pulled out a book. I waited 10-15 minutes (it was a really good book) and looked at my phone. No texts, no missed calls, and most suspiciously of all no emails. And no service. NONE. Not one bar. Barely even searching for service. Nothing.
Not one to be detered by some no service nonsense I called my dad – “CALL FAILED” my phone blared. Maybe a text will go through? “TEXT FAILED.” Might as well try email…guess how that ended.
So there I was, stranded in the middle of the airport on Thanksgiving. No dad in sight. Time for a retro move. I dig around my purse and found some change to make…wait for it…a pay phone call. Yes, these still exist. No, they were not easy to find.
Luckily, I still remembered how to use a pay phone. Unluckily, my dad has the same service provider I do and his phone also had no service.
By now I was fuming. FUMING. You didn’t want to know me. I was in the airport on Thanksgiving — annoyed more than I’d ever been annoyed before.
I’ll save you the pain of reading about my subsequent rage blackout and fast forward to the part where I found my dad, we drove off and ate a delicious non-turkey Thanksgiving meal. Do know that there was much discussion about switching to a different carrier. A carrier who would not only make sure my dad and I were able to call each other, but one who could miraculously help my dad ask key questions like: what airline are you flying? (Did I mention he was at the completely wrong baggage claim?) We wanted to not have this two and a half hour debacle ever happening again because of a faulty service provider.
Proof we actually found each other despite our lack of cell phone service.
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Compensation was provided by U.S. Cellular via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of U.S. Cellular.