Randy and I really needed a few days away. There isn’t much I’d rather do than head to Tennessee and watch The Madisons play live. They had two shows scheduled and our cabin was available.
Before anything else, I have to say, I love this cabin. I love it so much. Just looking at it makes me feel calm. I don’t sleep well when I’m not in my own bed. Hell, I very often don’t sleep well in my own bed, but I have never had a bad night’s sleep in this cabin. Although, a moth did buzz my face in the middle of the night the first night, but I fell right back to sleep.
Usually, the trip down is pleasant. It’s a pretty trip. The trip is not as pretty if you spend half of it on the phone with ‘Mitch’ or ‘Midge’ from Cincinnati Bell technical support.
The problem started with me not being able to access some websites. I couldn’t get to twitter or FB, but I could still access my blog and email. I had some stirrings of anxiety but put my faith into tech support.
HAHAHAHFUCKINGHAHAHAHA
I work in IT. I know better than that.
By the time ‘Mitdge’ got finished walking me through settings my phone was rendered nearly useless. I could receive calls but nothing else. Nothing. No texts, no catching up on scramble games, for all that is holy NO CHECKING MY BLOG STATS. Here is a sampling of my conversation:
Midge: Michelle, what happens now when you press the menu button?
Me: Well, the menu button doesn’t exist anymore. All I have is a key pad and where the menu button USED to be says ’emergency calls only’
Mitch, terribly annoyed with me: Yes, Michelle. You DO have a menu button.
Me: No. No I do not. There is no menu button. There is no anything. I can hear text notifications coming in but I can’t get to them. I can’t drag down from the top. I can’t do anything with this phone. (Thank god Randy’s phone wasn’t affected).
Midtche: I will call your number.
She successfully calls my number and I can clearly hear her on my phone.
Me: Okay, great! So we’ve established that the ONLY thing my phone can do now is receive calls, which really, is the most annoying thing it does.
Midge/Mitch/Midche: There is nothing more I can do. You will have to take it to a phone store.
I was so much better off before I contacted tech support.
I was going on a forced social media blackout for days. I was way more stressed out about this than I care to admit.
We got to our friend’s house and unloaded a few things before heading back to our cabin to unpack. The first thing we saw was this little guy.
I thought he looked like he had Aztec symbols painted on him and Randy says it looks more like a fleur de lis symbol. Either way, I thought he was beautiful. Sitting there in the door frame.
On the ground.
Where we were walking in and out carrying our stuff.
I’m not sure which one of us smushed the moth, but I think it was Randy. I had taken my shoes off and I didn’t have any yellow moth juice or wing fuzz on my feet.
Oh, and Randy was sick. Like a ‘running a fever, should have stayed in bed’ sick.
Our trip started out with us being a couple of bad luck Schleprocks. We definitely had the dark cloud hanging over our heads.
The Madisons kicked ass that night. I love their shows so much.
More later. I have to go to the phone store now and lay my shit down.
I don’t know how you did it. I can’t seem to put my phone down for 4 minutes, let alone 4 days. Hope the phone store can give you a solution!
Oh..they WILL give me a solution. I am so much not happy right now. It was so frustrating.
Oh, that does suck. I dropped my phone and broke the LCD in the midst of making arrangements to get to Florida when my grandson got sick. It was horrible, but the folks at the phone store where we stopped on the way out of town were awesome. I had a working phone in my hands in about 5 minutes. Hope that happens for you, too!
Yes, it’s working again…I don’t even want to say what it was…damn.
I was actually wondering if you were out of town as your twitter responses are usually so fast. Love my postcard by the way. Oh and a huge moth that I was trying to relocate actually peed in my hand so that is my moth story. Welcome back!
I am so glad you liked it! I am not an artist…but I do like to doodle when I drink…which sounds vaguely nasty.
At least you didn’t kill the moth.
Wow. I’m with Micah. I couldn’t bare having my phone for that long. I’m addicted….
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Hi. My name is Rocco and I’m addicted to my phone and the internet (specifically twitter).
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Good luck with those assholes at the store too!
I have a whole post I need to write about being forced to stay away from all that is the internet. It was truly uncomfortable and I’m not sorry it happened.
You shouldn’t be. We all need to get away from it all sometimes. It consumes too much of our lives. When I went to visit my friend in Seattle a few weeks ago, I still went onto twitter and what not, but it was FAR less than a normal weekend. It was stress-free and nice. However, I was still not able to just put the phone down.
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Can’t wait to read your post on this though!
Once I had an attorney who explained that when he went on vacation, he thought it was important to leave his mobile behind so that he could be completely present to his family and open to experiences. Of course, I fired him.
You had no choice.
I thought you were just in a place with no connectivity. Having a broken phone is WAY worse. OMG, so you COULD have connected if you’d had a phone? THAT would send me around a bend. I’d have been stealing my husband’s phone every chance I got. Which would make him livid, of course. Then again, it was probably sort of peaceful knowing that even if you wanted to, you couldn’t check stuff.
And RIP pretty moth (I see the fleur de lis too).
Hubs phone is OLD school..texting and calls…that’s all he has…
SO glad you’re back– I was starting to worry
I love my phone, hate when it freaks out, love that there are IT people, hate when they are no help. I’m more prone to just buying a different phone on ebay… hence, that drawer of old phones…
Sometime a (voluntary) few days without technology can be really freeing. I’m doing it more often, and loving it. 🙂
Survived a second family funeral in a month, too, so, yay me.
Oh no…not another one. I’m so sorry.
I probably wouldn’t have chosen to give up my access..but I’m glad it happened. Kind of. I’m thinking that it’s important to me to disconnect on a regular basis.
Yeah, I love it when I *plan* a weekend unplugged, where I can just be outside or doing stuff with my family. It always feels like I staged a little rebellion.
I read shit like this and I am SO happy I don’t have an iPhone.
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It was so frustrating. I appreciate it very much….but it does kind of become a ball and chain.
That sucks !!! I hope you managed to get your phone working again and that Randy is over whatever he was sick with !
I noticed that I didn’t go onto SM much over the weekend because we were working too bloody hard. Oh no, I did go and post a video on FB after K had kicked 4 goals and won some awesome prizes at the footy on Saturday night !
Have the best day and enjoy the rest of your long weekend !
Me xox
YAY for K!!! How wonderful!!!
Yes, the phone is fine now and Randy is on the mend. Not perfect, but much better.
So was the moth that buzzed you while you were sleeping the ghost of the one that got squished? A relative, maybe? With that fleur de lis on it, perhaps it was an official Cub Scout moth? I can relate to your frustration about the phone: When we came back from the mountains it was a week before we had any internet at all. I hope you are refreshed and Randy is feeling better.
yeah, I think it was a relative or something.
It was lovely and Randy is feeling much better. Thank you!!
Honestly, going to the cabin should entail no electronics. Maybe that was the universe telling you to take a break from it. 🙂
It really should mean no electronics and I am using this as a lesson to start taking breaks…
fucking phones.
BTW, I’ve been meaning to tell you for like a week, I got your postcard drawing! I might have even made a squee noise when I opened my mailbox that day. Don’t tell anyone though.
Your secret is safe with me!
And YAY! I’m glad you liked it!!
I feel your pain, Michelle! My phone took a swim in our pool on Sunday and, unfortunately, could not be revived. I am in horrible withdrawal and will be until my new phone arrives (which will probably not be until the end of the week or later). It’s crazy how much we rely on our electronic things.
Oh god, Jana…I am so sorry. That’s tragic.