DAY 101

Balsamic Vinegar,  chip clips, Mapquest and cell phones are all things that not too many years ago didn’t exist.  Or, if they did, I wasn’t aware of them.  Now they have elevated to necessity status in my life.

Although, if I had to settle for a salad with red wine vinegar; I could do it.  But, If I didn’t have my cell phone, I wouldn’t have the last 962 photos I snapped,  and I’d have to Google my own home number since I never bothered to memorize it.

So, when my cell phone charger stopped doing its job, I needed a fix (literally and figuratively I suppose).

Slightly frayed

It seemed to me that someone with the appropriate tools and a little know-how could probably repair the cord.  So, I took a trip to the local Mac Store on an unassuming Wednesday where there was barely a soul wandering down the sidewalk of the high end strip mall.

A literal shopping ghost town

Then, I stepped into The Mac Twilight Zone which was inexplicably teeming with people (Where were they coming from? Were they sneaking in the back door?), most of whom were anxious to spend money. However, a good deal of them were polo clad employees, all intently poking at their tablets,  occasionally speaking authoritatively into their headsets  as if they were preparing for a shuttle launch… or a Friday night at Applebee’s.

While clutching my charger, I got hot potatoed  down the line until I finally landed at Kevin (or Chad, or David–I don’t really remember) who introduced himself as my “triage nurse” and told me he was the last stop before someone at the genius bar helped me.

First, I think I exercised great restraint by not shouting my phone charger needs “a thousand CC’s of ringer’s lactate, STAT!”

Second,  did you know they called their repair counter the Genius Bar?  Well, I didn’t, so I just sort of stood there, blankly,  internally repeating his words trying to figure out what in the world he meant wondering if I was going to get a cocktail of some sort.

Very busy, saving the lives of countless computers and phones

So finally, after being triaged and an additional wait (just for good measure), my bartender, Justin, arrived to help.    I held up my cord– he stabbed at his IPad– and finally decreed,” OK, it’s under warranty, we’ll get you a new one.”  Technically this is allowable under my self -imposed Simple Year guidelines since I wasn’t actually BUYING it.

But, I made an attempt and said, “you know I feel like we live in a disposable society and it would be great if you guys could just cut this off here and reattach it.  You know, fix it instead of throw it away.”

Then he very cheerfully said, “You are the first person I have ever had say that to me.”

How long have you worked here?  I asked.

“Three years”

“Oh”

Justin went on to explain to me that because he wasn’t a Chinese robotics arm, he couldn’t fix it.  (or something along those lines)

So, I took my brand new cord.  Yet I can’t help but feel slightly depressed about the whole encounter. I have a method to charge my phone, but I somehow, I just don’t feel like this was a win.