I spent a day without my cellphone, or as I call it, The Day I Was Cut Off From the World.
I bought a new iPhone 8 a few months ago, which I bought because I fell in love with the camera and how great the pictures were that my son and daughter-in-law took of my granddaughter with theirs.
I woke up one day last week, and my phone was dead as a hammer. Not a glimmer of light.
So I couldn’t text my mother Happy Birthday. I couldn’t check the weather. I couldn’t call my daughter-in-law to ask to borrow something, because I DIDN’T KNOW HER PHONE NUMBER.
It happened, of course, on my busiest day at work, but I was standing outside the local phone store when the doors opened. I said, “Help!”
Bless the guy’s heart; he couldn’t. At one point, he was watching a YouTube video to see if he was holding the buttons down long enough to restart the phone.
I knew only a genius could help. After a birthday dinner with friends, my husband and I drove to Little Rock to the Apple Store. We’ve always had a great experience with the young hipsters who work there.
There was a short wait, and I forced myself to go shop across the street.
We had a tech, Ryan, and I said, “Be our hero!” He said, “No pressure.”
First, he tried the simplest trick to turn on my phone, because we are of a certain age. I once took a phone in with a problem, and it was that the volume was down on the ringer. I think I’m in a book, “Old and addled.”
He asked if there had been an accident with the phone, and I swore there hadn’t been. He said we looked sketchy, and he pointed out the “Take Home” folder my teacher-husband had with him to grade papers while he waited.
I told him how cut off from the world I felt. I went to go get something from Brandi, my daughter-in-law, at her job, and I drove up and had no way to text her to come down. Ryan joked about me throwing pebbles at her window to get her attention.
He was hilarious. My husband and I were joking back and forth. If someone didn’t know better, he’d think I was drunk. Hadn’t had a drop.
As I do, I asked all kinds of questions about Ryan’s life. I saw that he was married, and it made me happy because he was a sweetheart! (This was based on my hour with him.) He has a 2-year-old daughter, Cora, who is great, but “No” is her favorite word, and she doesn’t like to brush her teeth.
I mentioned The Brushies, a book that I bought Kennedy, my 10-month-old granddaughter. It has a little rubber toothbrush like a dog toothbrush. My husband read my mind when I told Ryan this: “I know what you’re thinking — you’re going to get that book and drive it to Little Rock.”
That’s EXACTLY what I was thinking. Ryan said he wasn’t allowed to take gifts, but he’d keep that in mind.
Ryan got me a replacement phone, no problem. Another awesome employee named Keith put the glass face-plate on. Ryan suggested we adopt his co-worker, so the guy could be Keith Keith.
We shut the place down; the lights were being turned off when we left.
My husband and I got in the car laughing. It was the most fun I’ve ever had at a store.
And, I’ll be back with a little gift for Cora.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.