alas and alack.

This summer, my phone fell into the ocean. So I have been making do with Brooklynne's 5-year-old motorola razr, waiting with baited breath for yesterday when my "new every two" benefit matured with Verizon.

Well, yesterday was also the day for me to go to my class in Greensboro, but just as I arrived at campus, my car blew a hose and sprayed antifreeze all over the parking lot.

Coincidentally, yesterday was ANOTHER snow storm in central NC. So I was in Greensboro, with a broken down car, and it is snowing big wet sloppy snow.

Ok Miles, what should I do? I should call Marshall. He can probably bring me some tools and take me to a parts store. Where's my phone? Oh, here it is. Now I just have to find his number in my contacts... wait come on... what the @#$!... the phone's display isn't working! How am I supposed to find a number in my phone if I can't see the display?

(After a few minutes of opening and closing the phone) Oh, finally! I can just make out enough to get the number... BEEP!... What?!... BEEP!.. (phone says low battery)... Low Battery ?!! I just had you plugged in the whole way from Durham to Greensboro!!!

Anyway, I finally got in touch with Marshall, but I ended up spending 3 hours in the cold replacing the hose on the car. Still, the fear of not being able to call for help made me particularly eager to get home and get the new (free) phone I am entitled to for being a loyal Verizon customer.

WRONG. In order to get a phone on par with the enV2 (the phone we currently have other than the afore mentioned razr), Verizon requires an additional $10/month data package. So my "free" upgrade will actually cost me $240 over the course of my contract, for services I don't want or need. Sure there are phones we could get for free, but they would be a step backwards from the models we have had in the past.

So in honor of Verizon's masterful squeezing of its customers, I googled "verizon sucks." I found many, many images and stories of people being gouged in similar ways but one wins the award for greatest act of phone rage protest. I posted it after the break due to iffy language in the memo line.