A Broken Phone and a Lot of Kindness - Saying Thank You

An example of a picture I would have lost without my new friend D

I was mean today. I got a telemarketer call from my mortgage company to do an "account review." I have asked them not to call me about this about 10 times over the past few months - I'm fine with my mortgage, we pay on time, the right amount, and my interest rate is pretty outstanding. We're just not interested in an "account review"...oh, and it's during working hours - so I'm busy...you know working - so I can pay for my mortgage. WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM ME TO STOP CALLING?!  It wasn't Mr Telemarketer's fault - he too was just doing his job but dude, not the week for me to talk to you. And then MD Anderson called while he had me on a brief hold - I elected to hang up on him and talk to the schedulers instead. I guess I should expect a call from him again tomorrow and I'll have another chance to try again - this time I'll be nice.

It goes to show that I'm not perfect at my Power of One. I still have bad days and fail but I guess each day is another chance to try again and do it better the next time. Like I told Warren yesterday when he confessed to having had three time outs at daycare - you don't have to be perfect...yet. Being good can be hard - but we just have to keep trying. Maybe only 1 time out tomorrow? You're four after all.

So, today I failed a little, but tomorrow, I'm going to do better.

On Tuesday, on my way home from our MD Anderson appointment for the neuro-surgeon consultation (basically meeting my surgeon and generally talking through her thoughts on the MRI results) I had to call a washing machine repair man. That's right...our washing machine broke. Like to the tune of $400 to repair but "just do yourself a favor and get a new one" broken. So, we picked up my kids from Michelle and hit up Lowe's.

We got a pretty darn good deal - 25% off and then used Jeff's military discount for extra points and it will be delivered and the broken one removed on Sunday. All for just over the $400 repair bill. I've decided to consider it a bucket list item completed - You see, I've never purchased a washing machine before. And I did it BIG people. I got a larger capacity load so now I can wash my duvet cover and pillows, etc AND do fewer loads of little boy laundry.  Wiiiiinnnnning.

Since we were out and about, we also stopped by the AT&T store because, you guessed it...my iPhone started having troubles this week. It dropped calls like nobody's business and when we tried to call Jeff from the neuro-consult (we decided it was pretty darn important that he stay at work and keep our health insurance safe) he mentioned he couldn't understand or hear the conversation because it was muffled. Since it was right near us, my mom stayed in the car and I ran into the AT&T store to see if they could help me figure out what to do about it.

I met with a lovely young man who we shall call "D" so he might remain anonymous. I did text him today to reiterate my appreciate for the story I'm about to tell you and gave him a heads up about this post. I figured he could show it to his mom and she would know what an amazing person she raised!

So turned out there was a hardware problem with my iPhone 6s that couldn't be resolved in the store - or under my warranty because it was lapsed. And I didn't opt for insurance when upgrading recently (dude - always get insurance: life insurance, health insurance, phone insurance, car insurance, trip insurance...actually I don't know about that one). So, my option were limited.

I informed my new friend that the reason I was in the store today was that I was recently in the hospital and would be in and out for the next several months and needed a reliable phone - so this had to get fixed. He was really apologetic but I was going to have to play by AT&T rules and buy myself out of the contract (~$200) and then pay the tax on the new phone (~$60 for another 6s). Yeowch, but dude, working phone or non-working phone. I'll pick working phone especially given my current situation and the amount of calls, emails, texts, and FaceTime's I'm about to have so I can talk to my kiddos. WORTH IT.

I can't image what went through "D's" mind when he tried to make small talk about how I mentioned I was recently in the hospital... "yeah, I was diagnosed with brain cancer this week." Awwwwkwaarrd. I did apologize and say that I bet he never forgets this appointment...can you even imagine? Poor guy...I actually felt bad. Note, it's still super awkward to share this news face to face with people. They don't know what to say - I don't know what to say. Meh.

Anyway, so being that I've been hard core using my phone to take pictures and notes and texting over the past week and NOT having backed up my phone and NOT being prepared to walk into an AT&T store to turn over my phone never to be seen again you might imagine that I was stressing about the stuff ON my phone.

We did the transaction, I picked out my new iPhone 7 PLUS (larger screen in case I need the larger finger targets post brain removal - JOKE) - paid my money and held my grey phone in my hands. D did give me a plethora of color options - pre-July 15 I might have cared what color my new phone was...post July 15 didn't need to make another decision. I went with grey/silver - because that's the color of the brain - #GreyMatters (that's an actual brain cancer thing that I'm slowly learning about).

Anyway, it's a policy at AT&T that when you turn a phone in they wipe it...pretty much immediately. D did try to do a data transfer but the system said 5 hours to do the transfer and they closed in 1 hour. Options were limited. But my friend pulled some strings and had his manager put the old broken phone in the vault with a HUGE note NOT to wipe it and said I could come in the next day and do a backup and/or get the important things off of it.

He gave me his business card, said he would be off the next day, but his manager approved it and knew what was going on, and if I needed anything or had a problem to call him. Yeah, I see you being awesome and kind and compassionate, D.  I told him he did all he could do, I was thrilled to leave with my new working phone and I'd return tomorrow with a plan to get my data.

This man I didn't know, who didn't owe me anything, stuck his neck out for me when it beyond mattered. I went home with my new phone thinking I'd last backed up my phone before our Colorado trip and that I might just need to grab a week's worth of notes and pictures - easily accomplished via airdrop.

When I got home and confidently plugged my new phone in to do a restore the last actual backup was from around...oh, January. Which meant that 6+ months of pictures of my kids and important notes were gone to me unless I was able to get the information off my old phone. I was slightly upset - okay tears - lots of tears and lambasting myself for being so stupid! You're in tech you moron, you KNOW better! (Actually, we're at a good breaking point. Stop what you're doing, plug your phone in and do a backup...I'll wait...<plays jeopardy music>).

Oh, good. You're back.

So, Tuesday afternoon, I left work a little early and had my new chauffeur (my Mom) drop me off at the AT&T store while she went to get my oil changed.

Aside: Life goes on. Silly details like the fact that I had scheduled an oil change at our local dealership on Monday - which I missed because #braincancer, #ER, #biopsy. So, my awesome Momma dropped me off and went to take care of that task for me. I see you being awesome too, Mom. Y'all, I had a free oil change and tire rotation on my car if I got in under 24,000 miles...had 26,000 so we had to pay for it. Yes, I tried to get mom to use the sob story - it didn't work - but we happily paid for the oil change to check it off the list of to-dos and moved on. #expensiveweek

Scene: busy AT&T store, enter crazy brain cancer lady who equipped with her own computer asking for her phone that's in the back vault that "D" saved for me, ask your manager she should know what I'm talking about. I sit down and wait for someone to bring me my phone. I talk to a few people who stop by to check on me all very polite and doing their job. A lovely lady brings me my phone and goes over some options with me - you just can't leave with your old phone.  Right, I don't want it. You can HAVE the thing; you recall it doesn't work - after I get my precious pictures and important notes with questions we've been stockpiling to ask doctors, and to-do lists, etc. I promise not to leave with it.

They ended up having to call D. On his day off. And he pulled through again - my phone was not wiped per company policy, it was returned to me to do a backup, and everything turned out the way it was supposed to.

Do you see it yet? We put out the kindness and it comes back to us. I literally cried in front of the store manager when she came to check on me before I walked out the door. She bent some rules for a stranger, believed in her employee's goodness, and saved over 3,000 photos of my kids for me.

As I hit the "erase iPhone" button (twice) on my old phone, I had a sense that my Power of One literally multiplied itself for me that day.

So, tomorrow, I'll be nicer when my mortgage guy calls me back for my damn account review. I still won't refinance my mortgage, but I'll at least let him do his job - and heck maybe they'll stop calling me. But I'll answer their questions and work on being nicer, one day at a time. I hope you'll do the same.

#EllenI'mStillWaitingForYourCall

Also, a quick snippet of the type of notes I had on my phone that would have been lost to us forever had D not been the amazing super star he is:

Connor's Milestones: 

7/15/16: said Ma Ma for the first time. Crawled to me when picking up at Katie's and when I lifted him up he screamed it with a huge smile!

8/21/16: first steps. We are all playing around on the living room and he stood up by himself for several seconds and took two steps

11/13/16: climbed into chair by himself

April 2017: really started talking. Mama, Truck, Nana, ball

June 25, 2017

Climbed out of his bed at bedtime for the first time. Jeff goes, "have you lost your mind?!" He climbed back in so fast and hasn't moved since