My love/hate relationship with Sprint

Have you every loved someone so much but hated them at the same time? Well, that's how I feel about Sprint. In the beginning, everything was great. I paid my bills on time, if I had an issue they credited my account and I didn't get a bill for months. The good ol' days.
Then I bought a Palm Centro upgraded to Sprint's Simply Everything Plan(which is where the love part comes in) and everything went downhill. After 2 months, the phone started freezing up so I took it to a repair store and they ordered a new one. 1 month passed and the same thing happened. New phone number two. 3 more weeks passed and the same thing happens. This time I call Sprint and tell them I want a different phone because this is getting ridiculous. They have the audacity to tell me that I will have to pay $300 for a phone that's eqivilent to my phone. WHAT?!?!?! Why in my right mind would I pay for a new phone when this is no fault of mine. After speaking with two managers who tell me the same thing, I hang up on them. Now, I work in a call center so I understand how it feels to have to deal with rude customers, but Sprint treats their existing customers like shit(pardon my french). If I was a a new customer, I could have gotten the phone for $50 dollars. Its like they bend through hoops to get you to sign up, then throw you out with the trash after you do.

The next day, after I had calmed down, I called back and told them that I was leaving Sprint and moving on to a company that would appreciate me. The rep transferred me to someone that (SURPRISE, SURPRISE) offered me an upgraded phone for $30! Since that was all I wanted in the first place, I accepted and started my life with a Samsung Instinct. Fastforward to today. Its 2 months later and I get a text message saying that there is a update for my phone. Always one to want the latest and greatest, I click update. My phone turns off and then the reboot screen comes up. "That was fast," I think as I wait for the main screen to pop up. And wait. And wait. An hour passes and I jump on the internet to see if anyone else has had this issue and what they did. The only piece of advice I find: Go in to a repair store. Great.

So I drag myself out of bed, on my much needed day off by the way. Go into the store only for them to tell me there's nothing they can do but order me a new phone. So now I'm stuck with a crappy temporary phone, don't know anyone's number because they can't get into my old phone to transfer my contacts, AND once they activate my new phone, I have 5 messages from my boss asking me to come in today. Ain't that about a...

Aye Papi...

According to my roommate, I treat my blog like a red headed step child. Well roommate, when I stop working 60 hour work weeks, I will write my heart away. I will try to do better though.

Anyway, I heard something on the radio this morning that inspired me to dust my computer off and write about it. A lady called in asking for advice because she just moved in with her fiancee only to find out that he has a GORGEOUS Brazilian housekeeper. She wanted to know if she was wrong for wanted to fire her just because she's 10 times better looking than she is(she didn't quite put it like that but obviously if she was more attractive there wouldn't be an issue). So for about five minutes, I listened to women call in saying "hell yeah. girl kick her to the curb." Not once did someone call in an say what I was thinking: Are you that insecure that you hate to see someone beautiful making money? If your man was sleeping with her, I doubt you firing her will stop that. The only thing that will stop is them sleeping in your bed." Come on ladies, lets be more secure in our own "wonderfulness" and stop hating on others because God ran out of the ugly genes when he came to them.

Just because it's good to you, doesn't mean it's good for you

Last night, I had a conversation with a good male friend who I recently discovered would like to become more than my friend. I was telling him about this guy that I am extremely attracted to and I would describe as my "type." Now my friend is not what I would typically be attracted to physically, but I am drawn to his personality. After hearing me go on and on about my crush, my friend said it amazes him how women are rarely attracted to the person that is best for them.
I was shocked! Not because I didn't believe what he was saying, but because this was so true. When I think back to most of the choices that I've made in men, I realize that I tend to date the men that are living the "street" life and file the "corporate" type men into the friend category. Does that make me closed minded, blogworld? Is my attraction to these "bad boys" the reason why I am still single and not in a meaningful relationship? Now don't get me wrong...these bad boys never treated me badly, in fact, my recent crush is extremely sweet to me...calls me everyday to see how my day went; sends me text just to say he's thinking about me. But, when I think about it, I realize that we are both living very different lives and in the end I don't know if anything serious could every evolve.
When I look at most of my girlfriends, I realize that this same pattern appears in their choices of men. So, I've decided to be open minded and go out with my friend while remaining open to any possibilities. Even if nothing develops, at least I know that I kept an open mind and didn't immediately rule someone out because my knees didn't immediately go weak at just the sight of him.

Georgia Peach

Yesterday was a sad day for me. I had to do something that I've been putting off for three months. I woke up at the crack of dawn, reluctantly got dressed, got in my car, and drove to the driver's license facility to surrender my out of state license, and officially become....a Georgia Peach.
Now you might be saying whats the big deal. Well, blogworld, the big deal is that my Illionis license was the last thing I had that linked me to the place that I have known for the past 9 years. Growing up, my dad was in the Army and we had to move around alot. I never lived in one place for more than three years. When my parents divorced, my mom decided to move back to Illinois where I hadn't been since 2nd grade. I was so excited because I would finally be able to settle into a place and when someone asked me where I was from, I could just give them a straight answer instead of a long drawn out story beginning, "I was born in Chicago, but..." So finally being able to settle into a place and build long lasting friendships meant a lot to me. It meant that I could finally identify with a place and not feel like I was just passing through.
When I moved to Georgia four months ago, I knew that would have to get a Georgia license and license plate, but I didn't know that I would have to give up the one thing that proved "I'm from this place." I figured that I could keep my Illinois license as memorabilia of my established life. When I found out I couldn't keep it, I thought I could be slick and tell them I lost it. Then, I found out I would have to go through this long process of getting documentation from Illinois. It wasn't worth the time and effort. With a lump in my throat, that would have led to tears had the finest man in the world not been standing next to me, I just handed over the link to so many happy, sad, crazy, memorable moments.

What about yo friends

I have a real problem with people that just sit around and expect things to happen for them. While I was going through my unemployment phase, I also had two other friends who were experiencing the same thing. Friend A graduated with me and quickly found a temporary job while still searching for a career. Friend B graduated long before me(two years) and has just now found a temporary job. She seems to have stopped looking for a career altogether. The other day, I was telling friend B that I found my job through a professional organization that I joined and maybe she should try this too. You know when you're talking to someone about something and you can tell its going in one ear and out the other...well, thats what happened with her.

Throughout my journey into adulthood, I have been reevaluating the qualities I look for not only in a man, but in a friend. I've realized that my patience is growing thin for people who are not as, if not more, motivated than I am. The people that you surround yourself with are a reflection of you. While I love friend B and will always be there for her, I find myself distancing myself more and more. The last straw was when she showed her distaste for another friend who recently decided to stop partying and focus on getting her life together. Who in their right mind would be mad at someone for that?!?!? I am now realizing that Friend A is the type of person that I relate to and confide in more.

Not only can I call on her if I want to have fun, but she is also the type of person that I can grow and experience new things with. She is open minded and just an overall good friend. So Aerial, I just want to say, that over the past year, you have become a best friend to me and I appreciate you always being there!

Faith

You know what my biggest fear is? Failure. Just writing the word makes me want to jump up an accomplish something right now. I hate feeling that no matter how hard I try to do something and be the best I can, there's always that chance that I'm not good enough. That fear is why I kill myself to make things perfect, and beat up on myself when they're not. The people closest to me always accuse me of not being content when life is going good, but thats just how I am. I can't relax. Once you let your guard down and think that everything is perfect, you increase your chances of something going wrong and you're not prepared to deal with it when it happens. So if I never let my guard down, there won't be any surprises.

Today, the "F" word is front and center in my mind. I feel like no matter what I've accomplished in my life, its just waiting around the corner to smack me in the face. I try to replace it with a more pleasant "F" word, Faith, but everyday it gets harder. It gets harder when I see others who never had to work hard a day in their life get what I've been busting my butt to get. It gets harder when every time things are moving in the right direction, I hit a road block and now have to come up with a way to get around it.

My friend's mom said maybe if I had God in my life I'd have a job by now. I guess praying and reading the Bible everyday is not enough. Just because I don't wear my faith like a big crown for the world to see doesn't mean that I don't have God in my life. I went to church a month ago and the Pastor said "the power of the tongue is mighty. If you say it, it will happen." So everyday for a month, I've been saying "I'm gonna get a job today." Guess I need to do some tongue exercises.

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T

I was reading tonight and I came across a quote by Elizabeth Taylor that immediately sparked some serious thinking. The quote was in reference to one of her many marriages. It states "I love not being Elizabeth Taylor, but being Richard's wife. I would be quite content to be his shadow and live through him." In this day and age of the I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T (thanks for that hooked on phonics moment Webbie) woman, could we possibly be content living though a man? Could a man even handle a women who was willing to become so completely absorbed in him that she loses her identity?

My first thought was HELL NAW! No man is worth forgetting who I am. Liz definitely took this behind every great man there's a great women concept to a whole other level. But then I decided to be open minded. Maybe she meant not to forget who she was but to simply fall back behind her man and use her strengths to make him stronger. Now that, I might be willing to do if he is man enough to step up when I fall back.

Now if my man steps back with me and ask "baby where you goin," then I definitely know that he can't handle being the forerunner and leads me to another puzzle: can a man be content living in the shadow of a woman?