as always, amazed.

Last week was a little rough in the world of Erin. After a fun family affair in Kalamazoo, I discovered that my most adored 'Return to Tiffany' heart lock pendant was missing from my neck. Troy gave this little slice-o-bliss to me a few months ago and I have never once removed it. I knew that I would have to soon, for the once sparkling silver had become dark with tarnish, but not yet. As much as I love this necklace and the sentiment behind it, there was one drawback - the 'lock' feature was somewhat real. The handle could be pulled up and out allowing the pendant to be released from it's chain. A pretty cool feature in general, but maybe not so handy with toddler fingers constantly prying at every article on my being. I can only imagine that this is what took place that weekend. It had happened before, a couple of times in fact, where I had been holding my little man and YANK! Off went my little silver heart into his sticky little paw. I tried to teach him not to touch it, but as any Mom knows who owns anything shiny and valuable - it's pretty much pointless. I have always felt the tug before though. I mean you really need to put a bit of grunt into the pull in order for the heart to open. This time however I felt nothing. In fact I have no idea exactly when I even lost it. After the 90 minute drive home and an additional many hours, I finally noticed the absence of weight around my neck. It could have been anywhere.

After my usual panic freak out - which I am prone to, I emailed the aunt who's house we had stayed and explained what had happened. No luck. No one could find it after much searching. We had been many places. It was gone. I felt very upset with myself.

Five days later I dropped my iphone and the glass shattered into an unusable hundred or so pieces. After calling Apple and dealing with an extremely unsympathetic rep, I felt really pissed off to be frank. I have been loyal to Apple for many, many years. My love affair started with a small SE when I was seven years old. Computers were just entering the school systems for the first time and people were beginning to save for one for home. My Dad, a gadget lover and enthusiast, brought home our first Mac. I'm not sure why he he was swayed by the little desktop computer, but once it sat upon his desk, I became a Mac girl for life. As with many girls I am sure, my Dad was the TOPS. He knew everything about everything and if he said Macs were the best then I'll be damned if you are going to sway me otherwise. Every week of my childhood I would go to school with smug satisfaction and outrageous excitement over the fact that THIS week my Dad was going to win the lotto and next week I would be getting my teachings in Jamaica. I debated my classmates and earnestly put up my $2 weekly allowance on a bet that Ross Perot would be our next President of these United States. Of course he would. Although these days I do seek out my very own un persuaded opinion on most things, my love of the Mac has never faltered. My Dad and I will spend entire weekend visits tapping away at our own respective MacBooks, talking of this and that in which we have learned or stumbled across. If it is of Apple, we probably own it or at the very least covet it greatly. As was with the iphone. We oohed and ahhed over every little short that was made available on Apple's website. We spoke over it's grandness over the phone. It must be ours. And it was. Dad got hold of one the day it was released - I had mine a couple of weeks later. The first day was lovely - learning all of the quirky new features. Sadly, my affection was short lived. There are many things lacking that 'could have been' in the iphone, but of course it really is a revolutionary phone and I don't feel right going on and on about what it is lacking. My first problem was actually encountered by what it does have - a really deep and thin headphone jack. One of the reasons that I was so excited about the phone was that now my cell and ipod would be one. I would be able able to plug my phone into my car through the aux and listen as I had with my ipod. Wrong. Any normal auxiliary cable will not fit and as there is no Apple store in the middle of nowhere where I happen to live for me to buy the adapter - I am without. I can order it online, but why do I have to?? The question is mute anyhow with the shattered face plate and/or the $250 repair price tag. After calling Apple, I also contacted Apple retail stores in both Grand Rapids and Chicago. Same answer, no. No. No. My Dad, after a short visit, took the phone back to Milwaukee with him and tried a face to face approach. Nope.

In walks Troy. After me telling him that there was absolutely no point whatsoever in calling Apple as there was no chance of persuading them to fix my phone for free, he did so anyway. I am not sure where this confidence or abandonment of fear of others comes from, but I wish I had it. Even a little bit of it. Deal done. 20 minutes of this and that Apple is sending me a brand new phone. What? Okay.... I am absolutely not going to complain. An hour later, the phone rings and it is my Aunt Jean - my cousin, who did not even know that my pendant was missing, found the heart and had wondered if it were mine. Why? Because Troy had my initials engraved on the back. Wonders that boy is, pure wonders. It's a good thing to because I was having nightmares over having to speak badly about Apple. Pure blasphemy.

Keeping with the theme of my world of order being restored, tomorrow I am starting a fast. The Master Cleanse / Lemonade Diet / Detox whatchamacallit to be more exact. Fourteen days without any food is what I have to look forward to and I am sure it will be interesting, at least mildly. Updates to come if I have energy to put fingers to MacBook.