Phones are the new cigarettes
Gramps tells me stories about working at Boeing back in the Mad Men days -- smoking at every meeting, discoloring walls and tables, and taking smoke breaks every hour. Today I go to meetings where everyone is heads down staring at their phones, and they take breaks to spend more time on their phones. Both habits are odd and totally acceptable in their time.
I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to checking my phone for email, texts and social media updates. It's a nearly constant habit during the day, but when I'm home I try to lose my phone until the morning. I'd much rather enjoy my home than the email burden after-hours.
I got Amanda into a similar habit by accident. Ever since she got that damn iPhone she checks email, Twitter and mostly Facebook like they were lifelines. For example, my alarm usually goes off first in the morning and Amanda rolls over to grab her iPhone and check Facebook. It's become a Pavlovian response.
Phones physically resemble cigarettes. Think about it. Amanda's got this white case for her iPhone. The phone itself is round, thin and shiny. She looks cool when she uses it. All of the hip advertisements and commercials feature people using similar phones. The phones are marketed with the same messages, like "With an app, the phones can help you lose weight." All that's missing is Joe Camel.
You know how you don't realize you have a problem until you see someone else has it? That feeling hit me like a phone bill recently. I suppose smokers can relate. I know a lot of smokers who quit because they didn't like how smokers smelled or what their teeth looked like. All of a sudden I'm noticing that I don't like how hooked Amanda is to her phone and I don't like the way I am either. And I'm worse. It's time for us to wear a patch or start chewing that funny-tasting gum that you only get when you're at a bar.
For more on our connected-disconnected culture, check out this video featuring one of Amanda's new favorite, local musicians, Macklemore.
Honeymoon snafu
Remember that fabulous Costa Rica honeymoon I have been bragging about? Well, AT&T, Expedia and US Airways tried to ruin it for me. Oh how they tried.
First I need to blame Expedia. Amanda and I have both received several voicemails over the last few weeks about how our flight itineraries had changed. Thing was, nothing had changed. We kept receiving follow-up emails confirming the exact itinerary we had originally scheduled! I called Expedia to investigate and the representative I spoke with had no additional information about why we had originally received the calls.
I thought we were in the clear.
Wrong.
Amanda received another voicemail while we were on our way up to Seattle on Sunday to meet the caterer and see the Lake Forest Park reception venue again with Mom and Courtney. Shame on us for having a good time blaring music on the way up!
I called Expedia back immediately. After waiting 15 minutes on hold to speak to someone at Expedia, I spent another half hour or so waiting on hold while the Expedia guy talked to the US Airways. Our return flight had been cancelled and there was no other way to get us back on the day we had originally planned. ANNOYING. Thanks, US Airways! I'm sure the "Happiest Place on Earth" has a tough time attracting enough tourists to fill your planes.
For the record, I think Expedia and like airline aggregates are great. They have a place in the travel industry because they connect the dots between airline itineraries and find the lowest rates. Great. What I hate about them is that they really just are a hurdle when it comes to customer service. I didn't call the Expedia guy just to be put on hold while he calls US Airways! I'd much rather had just called US Airways myself and saved the initial Expedia hold time dammit.
By this time we were at the caterer location, Husky Deli, in West Seattle. I was pacing around the wine section (a comfort zone) while waiting for the Expedia guy to confirm my flight changes with US Airways. This is where the AT&T blame comes in.
I DROPPED THE CALL. I dropped the call after nearly an hour on the phone -- 95 percent of it hold time. AT&T, I need you to keep a line when I am in the middle of West Seattle surrounded by no tall buildings or mountains. I can understand if I was on the slopes skiing or in the basement of UW building, BUT I WASN'T. Shortly thereafter I received an email from Expedia confirming my flight from Costa Rica to Charlotte WITH NO RETURN FLIGHT TO SEATTLE. After all that time trying to figure out ways to get back to Seattle, Expedia leaves us in Charlotte. WTF WTF WTF!
I was done with customer service and dropped calls and all-up errors that day. It was Sunday and I was supposed to be having a good time with Amanda, Mom and Courtney wedding planning. We did. I dropped the stress like an AT&T call to focus on the rest of the day.
I picked up where I left off on Monday morning by calling Expedia again to get a flight from Charlotte to Seattle. I went through the hoops with Expedia again and again dropped the call before I could get confirmation about the changes. That was another half hour lost. I called back. I got a hold of an Expedia agent right away but the hold times for him to call US Airways were extremely long -- 25 minutes at one point. I had the hold music permanently branded into my brain by this point. I had to skip a work meeting just to stay on the line as I would have lost the connection if I had stepped in the elevator. I based out of Tully's for the first half hour of my work day just to wait for the Expedia agent to get back on the phone and confirm the new itinerary, now spending the night in Los Angeles and returning to Seattle a day late. No comp for the hotel either. Subtract that from any wedding money earned.
At least I had resolution. Two hours and 30 minutes later I had resolution. We are getting to Costa Rica and we are coming back and we are going to have a great honeymoon, so help me God.
Foto Friday: The new Woodward cometh
Last Saturday I had a chance to visit with the Woodwards and their new daughter, Torrun.
Trailer trash found here
Imagine my surprise when I saw THIS parked next to my house when I arrived home Thursday after work.
I expressed what my middle finger communicates in all ways possible right then and there.
Our neighbors across the street have a part-time hobby of flipping trailers (good for them), so I figured they were the culprits. I gave it a couple days for them to either assume the crap in their own driveway or dump the hopeless trailer.
On Sunday morning -- Valentine's Day -- I woke up to beautiful morning featuring that same crappy trailer parked outside our house. How romantic. It had been two days and now I was pissed.
I marched over to talk to the neighbors who shared their sympathy with me. They didn't claim the trailer and said they had already called the city about it. Of all street corners in Tacoma, someone had chosen mine to dump the vehicle. Ugh. From there, I knocked on the doors of the other neighbors just to disassociate myself from the trailer, let them know that we were doing something about it and otherwise plead that they don't consider me white trash.
I called the City of Tacoma, too. The trailer has plates on it, but all the lady on the phone told me was that there wasn't a record of the trailer being stolen. Well no shit, Sherlock. Who would want to steal this? I filed my report to little satisfaction.
By late Sunday, some cats (not Fabrizio) were crawling in and out of the porous trailer, which is filled with junk - tires, wood, etc. This could have been a meth lab for all I know.
The City of Tacoma also let us know that it could take THREE WEEKS to remove the trailer. The thing got tagged with spray paint in TWO NIGHTS. I didn't mind because it actually improved the aesthetic.
So what to do now? We can try to tow it somewhere, but half of the tires are flat (probably punctured after the trailer was dropped off). We can push it out into the street to create a hazard, but it might just get pushed back to the curb rather than be towed away.
We're going to continue to bug the the city about it because that's all that we can responsibly do, or just put our garbage cans next to it and hope the garbage man gets the idea.