Razrs and Tilts and iPhones....Oh, My!

So yesterday afternoon, I pick up my phone to return a call to a prospect who wants to talk about listing her house.  That's cool.  I like listings.  A lot.

I kept inputting the number, but the call won't go through.

Then, I look at WHAT I was inputting - you know that old saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome?  Yep.  That was me. 

Some of the numbers of the keypad of my phone were sticking but I kept trying...and trying...and trying.

Noooooooo!  Not now!  Like most Mondays, this one had been unusually busy and no time for my phone to misbehave.   Seriously, not a good time.  At all.

Finally, I decide to switch SIM cards with my other phone - like many other agents, I carry two phones.  One is just a small, simple RAZR phone for calls while the other is a smartphone for everything else. And should I have a phone problem, well, I always have a backup.  Good, right?

I HATE using my smartphone for phone calls...mainly because, well, the phone is apparently smarter than I am and I cannot figure out what all the symbols mean.   Yes, I KNOW there is a manual, but 68 pages for a freakin' phone?  No thanks. 

I...just...want...to...make...a...simple...phone...call. 

Is that too much to ask?  I don't need to conference in anyone else, I don't need to see their photo in order to know whom to call (I can read, thank you, and find their name THAT way), I don't need ten other functions...I just need to make a call. 

So, I swap SIM cards in order to make and receive calls from my "regular" phone number.  I manage to finally bumble through all my calls - although I don't understand why I need to "slide and press" in order to receive a call - making plans in my head to run to AT&T as soon as possible to pick up a new phone and restore natural order to my world. 

About that time, my dear husband walks in the room, I briefly explain (admittedly probably adding a little more drama to the story than was really necessary) my phone situation and he says, "I still have my old RAZR phone in the car.  Let me get it."  (He ditched the RAZR phone for an iPhone, but the joke is on him....18 months in to the iPhone, the battery is about kaput and he has to keep it charged it most of the time. Ha!)

Uh huh.   

He brings me back his old phone...his very tired, basic black phone with the cracked cover. 

Really?  Really? 

"Thanks, honey."

I sigh, resign myself to the idea it's really not a bad plan to use that phone - because, well, I actually KNOW how to use that phone - until I can buy a new one and it's a lot easier than trying to figure out the freakin' smartphone.

So once again I pry off the backs and pop out the batteries and play musical SIM cards. 

Only one problem...the SIM card from my phone doesn't work in HIS phone...it worked fine in the TILT, but it doesn't work in my husband's old phone, which is the same kind of phone!  Arrrgghhh...go figure. 

After 15 minutes of frustration, I give up, put all the SIM cards back where they belong and resolve to just run to the phone store first thing this morning.  The phone insanity has gone on far too long and I just do not have any energy left for Plan B. That is, if there is a Plan B.  (There isn't).

The evening passes with no further phone drama.

Until this morning...when I pick up my phone to see I have a text message from AT&T.  "Your Smartphone requires a data plan.  We have added the appropriate plan for your smartphone.  Blah, blah, blah." 

Aarrrrgghhh!  Nooooooooo!   If I can figure out how, I will have to give them a call this morning and straighten THAT out.  Gotta admit, though, I'm pretty impressed that although I only had the SIM cards switched for 15 minutes, they were right on the whole "gotta add a plan" thing. 

The daggone phone really IS a lot smarter than I am.