A Tale of Two iPhones

A Tale of Two iPhones

Saturday night the three of us ventured downtown for lunch and to see our favorite acapella group, Straight No Chaser. We were going to stop at the Christkindlmarket, but it was just too flippin’ cold. So, lunch at City Social (I had surprisingly good shrimp & grits) was followed by a brisk walk to the Civic Opera House.

On our way from lunch to the show.

I’d seen a sign that needed photographing, but rather than suggest that my family suffer for my art, I told them to go on ahead and get inside, and I’d meet up with them after I got the photo.

Such a fun play on the Rowling title. Who says operas are stuffy?

After grabbing the shot, I rounded the corner and spotted a familiar looking redhead – one of the guys from SNC! I called out so he would wait, and caught up to him. I told him we had a friend in common (a fab woman named Erin), and it turned out he and his sister were just talking about her (Erin, were your ears burning?). Anyway, I introduced myself to Don (I didn’t even recall his name – as much as I love and listen to SNC all the time, I’m not the detail-knowing-fangirl I would have been if I were single and in my 20s.), and asked to take a quick selfie. After my freezing fingers fumbled with the phone to snap the shot, I wished him a good show as he headed into the tour bus to (presumably) change into his suit for the performance.

A (bunch of) word(s) on SNC – Even if you’re not an avid fan, there’s a good chance you saw a video of them performing The 12 Days of Christmas several years back (featuring Chicago’s own Dan Ponce).

Or, maybe you saw this version recorded 10 years later, in 2008:

This really has become their signature song, and they now always add a bit of a twist. When Hubs and I saw them with my parents a couple of years ago, they did a flip-flop of Walter and Jerome’s dreidel/Africa solos that was hilarious.

But, this year they totally blew it away. I don’t know how they can possibly top it.

The performance was amazing. A great time was had by all. After the show, we had to stop and buy The Girl a tour shirt, which she will proudly wear to school one day this week, before winter break begins.

Concert t-shirt!

Heading home after the show, we decided to stop and pick up my car from the mechanic (I got new brakes), then go to our favorite local sushi spot, Toshi, for dinner. Near the end of the meal, I wanted to check something on my phone, and that is when things got interesting. My phone wasn’t in my purse, or my coat pocket. To make sure, Hubs called it, and while it was ringing, we couldn’t hear it, and nothing was vibrating in my purse. “Oh, it’s in one of the cars,” we figured. So, we paid the bill, and went out to retrieve the phone. It wasn’t in my car. It wasn’t in his. He tried calling it again. This time, it went right to voicemail. Crapola. I must’ve dropped it when I was going from his car to mine. It was probably frozen in the tundra with a dead battery.

We drove back over to the mechanic, and hunted in the parking lot. We couldn’t find it anywhere. We went back to Toshi to double-check both in that lot in and in the booth where we sat. No luck. We drove home and I put the phone in Lost Mode via Find my iPhone. I added a message with a $500 reward offering to anyone who would find it and return it. Then, I decided to go looking for it one more time. I put some “Hot Feet” in my boots, hot hands in my paws, and headed back out to the mechanic’s lot. I did a grid search. I dug through snow banks. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. It was snowing again, and I was defeated. I figured it must’ve either been really buried in a snow drift, or someone had picked it up and turned it off so I couldn’t track it, with the intent of hacking it.  I headed back home and poured a generous glass of wine, toasting to my poor, lost iPhone, never to be seen again.

That night, I had a dream that someone found it, and when I awoke to find there was still no signal with Find My iPhone, Hubs and I agreed that I should just go buy a new phone. Even if we found the old one in the eventual thaw, it’d be a waterlogged lost cause. I spent a good portion of the day restoring the phone as my old one was. Other than the missing case, I got it to the point where I could not tell the difference between the old and new.

The next morning, I herded The Girl onto the school bus and headed off to the gym. Just as I was about to finish my stint on the Open Stride (elliptical-type-device), Brian from the front desk stopped by to talk to me. Enterprise Rent-a-Car (from the same parking lot as where I lost the phone) called. They found an iPhone with a FitNation tag in the case while shoveling that morning. Knowing the whole saga, Brian was really hoping it wasn’t mine, since I’d then be stuck with two phones. But, he looked up the number on the tag, and it was indeed my phone. Un-freaking-believable! I was absolutely stunned. But, I finished my workout (it was legs day), and headed over to Enterprise. The phone must’ve been pushed by a plow, because it was found quite a ways from where I had dropped it. Although it would not power on, the only thing that appeared amiss was the missing screen protector film. The woman behind the counter said it had fallen off, loosened by the snow and cold. And the lightning port was full of snow, bu she blew that out. I thanked her profusely, and left wondering if I’d rather that it was operational or not given that I’d just purchased a brand new phone.

When I got in the car, I plugged it into a charging cable. Lo and behold, I got the dead battery icon on the screen. Could this thing still have life in it?! Not yet sure, I headed over to AT&T to find out what their return policy was on iPhones. It’s pretty decent – 14 days, plus a $45 restocking fee. Well, if the old phone works, I’ll consider it worth the $45 to basically rent a phone for a day. Next step, get  home and put the old phone on a more powerful charger than my car “lighter” port.

I’ll be damned, if it didn’t charge all the way up, let me update the iOS, and do everything except for make a call (because the SIM card was inactive). Oh, but then I found one thing that didn’t work. The selfie camera. Um. Ok. I could probably live with that, but I figured I’d try to troubleshoot it, including calling Apple. Derrick at Apple Care was great. He walked me through some things, actually listened to what I’d already tried, and ran some diagnostics which confirmed a problem with the camera. He booked me an appt. at a Genius Bar (what a dumbass name) for Monday, with instructions to not tell them what happened to the phone. No kidding. If they can’t determine accidental damage, they’ll fix it under warranty. And if it does look to be accidental (um, yeah), then I’m still in the time period where I can buy Apple Care Plus coverage (for $99) to get it fixed. So, when it’s all taken care of (new phone returned, old phone repaired), for basically $144, my lost phone will be not only recovered but will work perfectly – despite having spent two days buried in a snow bank. THAT is pretty damned amazing, if you ask me.

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