Good morning and Happy Hump Day! Summer is in full swing (and so are the high temperatures!) and I have yet to make it to the beach! I’ve had a frustrating couple of days since the weekend and hopefully I’ll put an end to it with this post and starting a brand new day…
ZiggyEvery once in awhile I like to refer to myself as the real-life Ziggy. You remember Ziggy, the sad, yet lovable cartoon character who’s constantly finding himself in unfortunate situations in his daily life…kind of like a born loser. Well for the past couple of days I’ve definitely had some Ziggy moments, where no matter what I decided to do, it was the wrong thing, and it seemed that nothing went my way.
iPhone BluesIt all started on Sunday when I went to Best Buy to get a new phone. My old iPhone curiously started behaving very badly during this, the last month of my contract and I’ve been wanting to get the new one. So I signed on the dotted line and walked out with my new iPhone 4. I was excited…that is, until Monday.
Sometime Monday afternoon I was playing with one of my newest apps, Cam Wow (check out an article I wrote on it
here), when suddenly the phone blacked out. I thought that maybe it was the app, and I restarted it again only to have it happen several times over the next 24 hours, finally dying altogether at around 9AM yesterday. I needed to go back to Best Buy! And so my Ziggy Tuesday began…
Bad timing all the way throughMy agenda yesterday was simple. I had two errands to do, or three now with the visit to Best Buy, and they had to be done in the morning. I was going to get my stuff done and then head on out to the beach in the afternoon, the time I like to go. Simple enough, right? Well, not for John on a Ziggy day.
Did you ever have one of those days where just every single little choice you make is the wrong one? Mine started when I forgot my receipt and box for the iPhone and didn’t realize it until I was about 20 miles from home. Deep breaths!
I just did what I had to do and went back home to fetch them and then go to Best Buy. By the time I did that it was noon and I was feeling a little peckish. There’s a really good pizza joint near Best Buy called Zeno’s and I figured I’d get a slice because otherwise I’d probably have to wait an hour or so before I could eat.
I popped on over to Zeno’s and grabbed a quick slice. I was in there less than ten minutes. That was the first of my timing mistakes as I walked into the cell phone area of the store seconds behind two other people who just happened to both need new phones and were both very curious shoppers. Needless to say, I stood there for almost an hour and fifteen minutes until they were both done, and to kick it off I just missed the salesperson I wanted to help me. (He was cute and he did seem to know a lot more than the other rep!)
So a mere two and a half hours later I walked out of Best Buy, at least with a new and working phone. They told me that this was the first defective iPhone they’ve ever gotten back. You see, I told ya: Ziggy!
A quick and easy trip to Staples…Not! A Ziggy day continues…After Best Buy I had one more stop to make, and that was to pick up a new calendar/planner for the upcoming year. I always get the same one, from Staples, and it begins in July so I wanted to start using the new one right away. I had seen the one I wanted a couple of weeks ago, so all I needed to do was run in, pick it up, and be on my way. Easy, right?
Of course, in accordance with my Ziggy day, the entire store had been rearranged in the two weeks since I’d been there and I could not find the planners. I finally had to enlist the help of a rep who even had some trouble locating them in the store’s new configuration. I’d only wasted about ten minutes to that point…not too bad.
As happens on Ziggy days such as this, I always seem to pick the wrong line to get on. When I approached the register area, there was one register open, with one customer being taken care of and the other waiting behind her. I stood in back of the second customer. Within seconds, another cashier opened another register and called the woman over. I stayed where I was. As I waited, the cashier in front of me was being very chatty with his customer, a little too chatty if you ask me. He was asking her about the health of her pc, if she’d like to make a donation to charity, and explaining the benefits of a Staples Rewards card…it was a never-ending sales pitch.
In the meantime, two other people got behind the woman who’d been called over to the other register and even the two of them, who came way after me, got to leave way before me. In all, I stood there a good ten to fifteen minutes…as the next in line…before I finally moved to the other register. That second cashier didn’t even call me over. She could sense I was seething and was very quick and quiet with my transaction. It was a frustrating ending to a frustrating morning…ur day!
I got home about 3:30 PM after leaving my house at 8:30 AM. What should have taken two hours in all ended up taking seven, and of course there were a myriad of other Ziggy moments that elongated what was supposed to be my simple day. I never made it to the beach, and my next chance to go isn’t going to be until Friday, when I’m sure something else will happen. Another summer day wasted! Today I’m stuck at home because I’m finally getting my dishwasher fixed and they’re not coming until between 2 and 5 in the afternoon, so it continues. Grrrrr!!!!
So maybe you’ll see me here again sometime today. I’ve got plenty of time on my hands and hopefully I’ll be productive. In the meantime, along with the theme of this week’s Janet Jackson “Songs of the Day” and my Ziggy day, here’s a Janet and Michael Jackson video that perfectly describes my day yesterday. Enjoy!
Scream - Michael and Janet Jackson
