HBG

Step one, blog. Step two, QVC.

Disconnected

I was a loyal Sprint customer for six years.

When I graduated from college and moved out to DC, I decided it was time for me to become technologically savvy and to get a cell phone. I researched my options methodically, evaluated several different phones, plans, carriers, etc., and eventually settled on a lovely Qualcomm handset using Sprint service. A lot of people I knew complained loudly about Sprint, but that little phone had crystal clear reception and was simply wonderful.

A few years later, I decided to upgrade to a new novelty phone--the clamshell. My first clamshell was that chunky Samsung phone as big as your fist, but I loved the damn thing. I carried it everywhere with me. Like most cell phones, though, a year later it was out of fashion and just not working as well, so I upgraded to a newer Samsung. Slimmer, better graphics, more functionality. Being a loyal Sprint customer (and before the convenience of number portability), I stuck with what I knew.

When I moved to Evanston this fall, I knew the days on my phone were numbered. Call clarity seemed to decline with each new call. Battery life had become nonexistant. And worst of all, Sprint service didn't work in the one classroom building on campus where I spent most of my waking hours.

It was time for a change.

The rub, of course, was that I wanted to keep my number. I'm attached to my 7-0-3 area code, and my easy-to-remember digits. But having changed my address to Illinois, that process is much more difficult.

After a few months of evaluating my options, using Rob's home address in DC, I made the big move to Cingular--a carrier that would give me free mobile-to-mobile minutes with several pals AND would get reception in the building on campus.

I found an online provider who could hook me up with the service AND could send me a nice, new clamshell phone (this one from Nokia). I ordered it. I got so excited when they sent me the e-mail saying the phone was on its way.

Then I waited. And waited. And waited.

And now, my lovely new phone with my fabulous Cingular service has fallen under some seat in a UPS truck somewhere between here and Landover, Maryland, never to be seen again. I called UPS to inquire where it might be. The best they could tell me? "Call the shipper and have them call us to make us look for it." Excellent. So I did that, and what did the shipper say? "We've asked UPS to investigate, they say it will take them between one and seven days to complete the investigation."

Can someone tell me what is so difficult about asking the driver of the truck that the damn thing went out on in the first place to LOOK UNDER THE EFFING SEATS?? I mean, come on, this company is AUTOMATED, they can tell you what truck a package is on at any one time. I see on their helpful little online package tracker that the box was signed out for delivery on the 13th. Can't they radio down to the driver and ask him to take a look around for something that might have been missed??

Meanwhile, Sprint has already shut off my service, and so I am without connection. The shipper says they are sending a new phone (which won't arrive until Tuesday), but this still leaves me completely and totally isolated from the world, it seems.

I'm convinced--it's the curse of Sprint.

Nomad

It's funny, being a nomad again after all this time.

There's a certain uneasiness that comes with feeling as though you haven't rooted yourself to any certain place. Driving away from the Windy City yesterday, I felt that uneasiness gnawing at my stomach. Chicago isn't "home" yet, but Ohio and DC almost both seem foreign to me as well.

That doesn't mean I'm not excited--I'm so thrilled to have three weeks of freedom and to be a total Lady of Leisure. And I'm fine with not being in Chicago, since few people I'm close to are actually staying there for the holidays.

I guess instead the concept of "home" should really be wherever the people you love find themselves--wherever that may be. Today then, "home" is Ohio, tomorrow, DC.

So now this nomad just needs to figure out what to do with her free time. Any ideas? (We've unfortunately already ruled out the panda, though I am dying to see him.)

It's all about the ring

Have you guys eard about this? I may be hopelessly jaded, but I feel this ring may make some girls very popular with the boys... and not in the way it's intended.

WOOHOOYIPPEEYEEHAW!

Sarah, 1
School, 0

Three more to go!

Wearing my Kosar jersey anywhere but the stadium

I agree with this completely.