Chicago Hopeless

Back from the "Windy City" last Wednesday. It was very windy indeed, the kind that really chills your skin and gives you a preview of wintery things to come.

It was one party after another since we arrived on Saturday. So much food in the span of four days that I wondered if my teeth would be needing dental implants Plano in the near future.

But what happened on the eve of my birthday dampened my spirits for the rest of my trip more than the sudden downpour that drenched me and my cousin in downtown Chicago: I had lost my Sprint celfone. This was the same phone that I lost in Orlando just last May, but this time, nobody turned it in.

I don't know exactly how I lost my phone. We were still in the car driving to Museum Campus in Chicago late at night so I can take pictures of the Chicago skyline from across Lake Michigan when I last used it. We parked, walked towards Shedd Aquarium, then it started to rain--with hailstones that hurt. My cousin and I scampered back to the car. After that, we drove around some more and made other stops around the city to take photos.

When we finally called it a night and cheered that it was already my birthday in Central Standard Time (past midnight), we drove back home. Before I left the car, I dug through my whale of a bag (I prefer huge bags on trips) for my celfone. It was then that I realized that it was missing. We searched the car to see if I dropped it on the floor somewhere, but it wasn't there. We kept calling my phone but it was just ringing. I remembered how it was already low in battery when we headed for the city, so I resigned my celfone's fate to oblivion, imagining how it must have fallen to the ground when we ran in the rain.

It must have slipped from my sweater pocket, if I had absent-mindedly placed it there. What unlucky stars I have when it comes to gadgets....and to lose it just before my birthday! All those text messages and voicemails greeting me happy birthday...all sent to thin air...or in the sewers of Chicago. I'm only 31 and I'm already senile! Oh, the horror!

Sprint phones don't use sim cards, so when the battery died on my phone, there was no way of calling me, nor was there any identification on it to trace it back to me. I had no choice but to report that phone as missing, but now my next problem is replacing it with a Sprint phone, not any other old phone I have from previous networks because they can't reactivate my phone number there. I did not want to have to spend $200+ just for a new Sprint phone! They can't replace my lost phone for free because it didn't have insurance.

My last resort was to purchase a used Sprint celfone from Ebay. I bid for and won a cheap Motorola Razr phone for $15.50. As long as it has a camera and internet browsing capability, I can live with it for now. Can't yearn for a free phone from Sprint because our plan isn't eligible for a free upgrade until two years from now.