This morning, after taking my car in for maintenance, we decided to head over to Oakbrook Mall so I could check out a perfume I was interested in at Sephora. We got to the mall early (9:30 am) so most stores weren’t open yet. It’s one of those outdoor malls and it was a beautiful morning, so we decided to just walk around.

And that’s how we stumbled upon the Apple Store which was already open. It wasn’t terribly crowded, so we went inside to take a look around. There were iPhone 3Gs everywhere! What a tease! We learned from an employee that we could have bought my phone at the store (as they were fully stocked) for the same price AT&T offered us and just ordered the service online to get Joe’s employee discount. Ugh, just stick a stake right through my heart why don’t you?!

We browsed the iPhone protective cases (but I’ll get mine at Fry’s where they are cheaper) and then I proceeded to bore Joe while I played around with one of the iPhones. I’ve never really handled one before (yet ordered one with full faith in its abilities), but it was love at first touch. My experience navigating and using the apps just cemented the fact that I made the right decision. Even Joe was impressed with the things it could do.

After ten minutes I finally managed to tear myself away, and when we passed the store an hour or so later there was a mass of people in and around it.

The next 7-14 business days are going to be the longest of my life!

Downloaded apps: 39 and counting
New favorite phrase: “If I had my iPhone, I could do that right now”

Sometimes I don’t understand people.

A few weeks ago a lady from one of the townhomes across our courtyard was outside looking around calling, “kitty kitty kitty”. It wasn’t until she went back inside that I saw a cat come out from under a huge pine tree. I slowly approached the cat and he seemed friendly enough, but he didn’t have a collar on so I had nothing to grab and I didn’t want to try picking him up and chance freaking him out, so I left him and approached the woman’s patio door. It was open, but as I peered inside her home, I couldn’t see anyone, so I walked around to her front door (also open) and peered through the screen, but again, no one was in sight.

I rang the doorbell. After a minute or so, she came downstairs with a baby in her arm. I asked her if she lost her cat and she replied, “is he fat?” Well, I didn’t think so, but I described him to her and mentioned his lack of collar, to which she replied, “yea, he always takes them off” and just stood there. I asked her if she wanted me to show her where he was. Finally she came outside and followed me to the tree where he was still sitting, chewing on some grass. As soon as he saw her he ran back to the home and then she thanked me as an afterthought as I started walking back to my place.

This woman also owns an older dog who is very well-behaved. In fact, up until two weeks ago I had never heard him bark. She doesn’t leash him when she lets him outside to do his business and he doesn’t stray away from their patio, but the one day she let him out and forgot about him and eventually he got impatient and starting barking through their screen door to be let back in. After 5-10 minutes of him barking, her husband came outside to let him in.

Two days ago while eating dinner we spotted a small grey dog running around the courtyard but there weren’t any people in sight. He ran off toward the street but reappeared a few minutes later. I went out on the patio and he came running over, barking furiously at me, but keeping his distance. I noted he had a harness on – the type you’d clip a leash to – but no collar.

Eventually he began to calm down, so of course that’s when our next door neighbor decides to let her dog out, which prompts this strange dog to go into a frenzy and start barking in the other dog’s face. The neighbor’s dog barks at everything under the sun but for some reason didn’t bark at the little dog with the Napoleon complex. What I found bizarre is that our neighbor watched this for a moment, then turned around and went back inside, leaving her tied up dog to fend for himself. How did she know that the strange dog wasn’t going to bite her dog? Stupid.

Eventually some guy with a toddler started walking our way across the courtyard, but when he spotted the grey dog, he picked up the toddler and started walking back the way he came. The dog spotted him, however, ran past him, and they disappeared behind some trees. I still don’t know whether that guy was the dog’s owner or not. If so, he didn’t seem too terribly concerned about the whereabouts of his dog.

I don’t understand such behavior. Perhaps it’s because I can’t have the cat I’ve always wanted that I cannot relate to the indifference some of these people have to their pets running off. I’d be worried sick if my dog or cat got out of my sight while outside. It doesn’t take long to run into the street and get squished by a passing car. I saw it happen to a little baby squirrel on the way into work today, in fact. :(

I haven’t even gotten my iPhone yet and already AT&T Wireless is annoying me. First off, when I placed the new service order online Monday evening, I specifically put on there that both lines in the plan were being ported over from T-Mobile. Yet for some reason in the shopping cart under my husband’s phone there was a drop-down asking me for a preferred area code. I left it blank since he already had a phone number. On the next page all seemed well – it asked for information on each phone # that was being ported over, displaying both of our current numbers, and I went through the rest of the process to complete the order.

Since then, I have I repeatedly checked the order status several times a day but there were no updates to it. Until today. When I checked the status update for the umpteenth time (yes, I’m obsessed), the status was In Process with today’s date. I noticed, however, that under my husband’s phone it was showing an unknown phone # and not the one that was supposed to get ported over. So he called AT&T and waited 20 minutes to talk to a representative. The guy explained the order came through requesting a new phone number. That’s total bullshit, but whatever. He warned Joe that if he tried to change it now, it would start the processing of the order all over again. He recommended we wait until the phones were delivered and then call to make the change. He said the old # could still be ported over without a problem at that time. Fair enough.

When I got home this afternoon and checked the order status, instead of showing both phones and the phone numbers assigned to them with a status of pending, it just showed the order # and date with the following message – “We have received your order request, and we expect to begin processing it shortly.”

I freaked out and called AT&T to see what was going on. Luckily I was on hold for only ten minutes before being able to speak with a representative. She told me that the order is actually complete now (that status message is not very helpful then, obviously), but my phone is back-ordered and could take anywhere from 7-10 business days from today before being shipped. *CRY*

It’s bad enough we had to order online just to get Joe’s employee discount and didn’t learn of this caveat until Monday (had we known sooner we would have started this process last week), but now it could be two whole excruciating weeks before I get the sweet sweet iPhone? Say it isn’t so!

As you can tell, I’m feeling extremely impatient. I want my iPhone and I want it now. Shoot, I’ve already downloaded apps I want to install. It was one thing waiting the past six months for our T-Mobile contract to expire (which it did yesterday), but now that the time is here, I can’t wait any longer. Not that I have much of choice.

I just hope things are smoother from here on out. I’m already worried after hearing my friends complain about constant dropped calls. As one friend remarked, “more bars in more places my ass”. LOL! I never had to wait to speak to a representative with T-Mobile so right there the customer service is inferior. If only T-Mobile had the iPhone, I might not be treading into dark waters for the next two years…

But hey, I hear the iPhone is worth it. And I don’t call anyone but Joe anyway. ;)

It’s so sweet that my husband allows me to verbally abuse him in order to blow off steam after a frustrating day at work (which lately seems to be every day). He is very understanding when I end up snapping at him due to the irritation that builds up all day; then I come home and he’s the only one around to lash out at.

Tonight he took it in stride and even took me to the mall so I could get some retail therapy. $40 later I had a cute powder blue hoodie from Kohl’s, and a bracelet, necklace, and lightweight cardigan from New York & Company. I feel much better now!

—

Hey, did anyone else get their coupon from Mars for the Real Chocolate Relief Act? I’ve been going to the site every Friday and yesterday I got two of the three coupons I requested. They are good until August 21st but I doubt they’ll last long. Chocolate is a nice stress reliever.

Two new services our town has recently implemented:
Free dry-cell battery recycling (at the Village Hall), including old electronic devices
Expired or unused medications disposal (located at the police department, of course)

We’ve been trying to do our part for the environment like using the reusable grocery bags (although I will be the first to admit we could always do more), so I’m really happy to hear about these new developments. If only they had introduced them a bit sooner – I went through the medicine cabinet and chucked a bunch of drugs not even a month ago.