Sunday morning, while I was on call....there was a death.
My palm pilot is no more.
Notice me not saying "death of a loved one." Maybe I could go with "a dear one." A frequently used one. One I depended on that aggravated my by crapping out frequently and at the worst possible times.
Oh, but how I miss thee.
Understand, I bought this dumbass thing in July. It barely survived until January. My dad still has my old palm, which I bought, what, in '03? '04? I don't know that he actually uses it, but, it still works.
Whatever. So today was my day off. I had all sorts of plans. Ahhh, such plans had I. I was going to clean. I was going to go to the grocery store, to Target, to Walgreens, to see my shrink, an to buy me a new palm. And then to maybe nap on the couch and watch a movie with the doggie. Ahh, a nice idea, huh?
Yeah, well....
I was up really late last night after all the work I had left to do, and then just the agitation of it all, and then I slept pretty badly. Sometime this morning I had this very weird, epic sort of dream (I've been having a lot of those lately, where they just go on and on and on. I'm about two more shy of scheduling a sleep study to figure out what's wrong with my REM sleep) about my ex, who was just snide and indifferent to me in the dream, and his business partner, who looked nothing like what he actually looks like and kept trying to recruit me into their GYN practice even though I wasn't in the same specialty anymore. Oh, and it went on and on and on, seemingly for days (at least it wasn't as nightmarish as the one I had Sunday). Then I woke up and spent about an hour poking myself in the eye, because I lost a contact and would've sworn to you that it was still in there, but I don't think it was, because I ended up putting a new lens in, thinking at least they might stick together and then I could get it out, and it doesn't hurt as much and nothing else has emerged, so...
Then I did manage to make it to my therapy appointment, and then to Walgreens, and then I spent an inordinate amount of time discovering the fact that no one sells PDAs anymore. So it occurred to me that since I hate my KRAZR, which isn't working very well anyway, maybe there was a phone option that would solve both of my dilemmas. So I went to the Verizon store. Where a very nice woman told me that she wouldn't be able to give me any sort of discount and the most compatible phone she had that would fit my needs was over $600.
Yeahhhhh, no.
So I went to Circuit City, where I actually talked to someone, who told me they haven't sold PDAs in almost a year. She isn't sure why, because they always sold well, but no one in town sells them anymore. Argh. So, I stopped at the Verizon kiosk there and posed sort of the same question. And she's like, well, we have this option and this option, and hey, where do you work? Are you a state employee? Of course you are. So she xeroxed my State Hospital ID and I got a substantial discount off everything I bought (phone, charger, etc) as well as 20% off my monthly bill. Plus she gave me the new contract phone price (which I wasn't really eligible for yet). So I paid less than half of the original quote for the pretty new phone.
My palm pilot is no more.
Notice me not saying "death of a loved one." Maybe I could go with "a dear one." A frequently used one. One I depended on that aggravated my by crapping out frequently and at the worst possible times.
Oh, but how I miss thee.
Understand, I bought this dumbass thing in July. It barely survived until January. My dad still has my old palm, which I bought, what, in '03? '04? I don't know that he actually uses it, but, it still works.
Whatever. So today was my day off. I had all sorts of plans. Ahhh, such plans had I. I was going to clean. I was going to go to the grocery store, to Target, to Walgreens, to see my shrink, an to buy me a new palm. And then to maybe nap on the couch and watch a movie with the doggie. Ahh, a nice idea, huh?
Yeah, well....
I was up really late last night after all the work I had left to do, and then just the agitation of it all, and then I slept pretty badly. Sometime this morning I had this very weird, epic sort of dream (I've been having a lot of those lately, where they just go on and on and on. I'm about two more shy of scheduling a sleep study to figure out what's wrong with my REM sleep) about my ex, who was just snide and indifferent to me in the dream, and his business partner, who looked nothing like what he actually looks like and kept trying to recruit me into their GYN practice even though I wasn't in the same specialty anymore. Oh, and it went on and on and on, seemingly for days (at least it wasn't as nightmarish as the one I had Sunday). Then I woke up and spent about an hour poking myself in the eye, because I lost a contact and would've sworn to you that it was still in there, but I don't think it was, because I ended up putting a new lens in, thinking at least they might stick together and then I could get it out, and it doesn't hurt as much and nothing else has emerged, so...
Then I did manage to make it to my therapy appointment, and then to Walgreens, and then I spent an inordinate amount of time discovering the fact that no one sells PDAs anymore. So it occurred to me that since I hate my KRAZR, which isn't working very well anyway, maybe there was a phone option that would solve both of my dilemmas. So I went to the Verizon store. Where a very nice woman told me that she wouldn't be able to give me any sort of discount and the most compatible phone she had that would fit my needs was over $600.
Yeahhhhh, no.
So I went to Circuit City, where I actually talked to someone, who told me they haven't sold PDAs in almost a year. She isn't sure why, because they always sold well, but no one in town sells them anymore. Argh. So, I stopped at the Verizon kiosk there and posed sort of the same question. And she's like, well, we have this option and this option, and hey, where do you work? Are you a state employee? Of course you are. So she xeroxed my State Hospital ID and I got a substantial discount off everything I bought (phone, charger, etc) as well as 20% off my monthly bill. Plus she gave me the new contract phone price (which I wasn't really eligible for yet). So I paid less than half of the original quote for the pretty new phone.
Isn't it pretty?
I still haven't really figured out how to use it yet. Although I did get Epocrates on it, which is what's most critical to my life. And I can call out, especially to people already in my contacts, and text message without too much pain.
The one thing I really will miss about the other phone, though, is my GPS navigator. Although for the price I paid for the service, I've discovered I can easily get a TomTom, now (wow, have they come down in price, PS). So I stand a chance of still not getting lost.
The camera's better, too. If I could figure out how to get the dumb thing to sync again, I'd show you a cute picture of my dog....
6 comments:
Dude, you are the most techno-savvy doctor I have ever known. I didn't even UNDERSTAND all of this post and I'm married to a geek!
While you are getting a phone that does everything but make waffles, *I* am only buying appliances that are SPECIALISTS. I want a freestanding ice-maker. I want a phone that is a PHONE--no camera, no GPS, no Internet. For that I have other devices.
I guess maybe that makes me a 21st Century Version of a Luddite, huh?
Barb
I now have phone envy... d@mn you!
For a day off, you do entirely too much!
I jsut lost my phone, got a loaner and WASHED it, so jsut went round and round with Verizon myself. You have my sympathy on that, but sounds like you made out good!
I'm so not sure how I got to your blog, but here I am, and I'd like to say that I just bought a PALM CENTRO, and I'm loving it.
I agree with the phone envy.
I blame the iPhone. Everyone else got cooler to keep up, and left me behind in the dust.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Blackberry. Its awesome! Yours is great too and you can download Google maps for it which is almost as good as a Tom Tom. Turn by turn directions, but no voice. At least there is none on my slightly older Blackberry.
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