since i was working the evening shift today, i had nothing better to do with my time than stand in line to get an iphone. plus, with my razr battery getting disturbingly near death, and my razr itself actually getting alzheimer’s and forgetting it’s a phone from time to time, my holding out for a 3g iphone mixed with me having the day off on its release date seemed like fortune herself was smiling down upon me.
i woke up on my own around 7:30am. amazingly, got up. went to the computer and checked my mail and such. right before 8am my boss called from work with some “urgent” stuff for me to work on. *sigh* spent the next 20 to 30 minutes taking care of that. finally was able to get finished getting ready and walk out the door. drove to the at&t store in rice village. about 30 or 40 people in line. i decided to go check out the at&t store on buffalo speedway at 610. about 15 or 20 people in line. (this is around 9:00am.) parked, got out, got in line. someone in line says the store only got 30 phones, and about 8 or 10 people in the outside line will get phones before they run out. the rest are waiting, hoping someone won’t buy so they’ll get a chance. “screw that” i think. “it’s a small store. i just need to go to a bigger store, since obviously there will be plenty of phones today.” get back in my pickup and drive back to rice village. (now around 9:20am.) the line is about the same length. get in line. about 2 minutes later an at&t employee comes out, gathers everyone around him, and says they’re out (or about to be out) of iphones so everyone can go home. but he talked to the supplier and they are getting more tomorrow. in fact, they should have more than they got today. i overhear him or someone say “everyone is out.” dejected, i get in my pickup and drive home. i start looking around on the internet for info about stores getting small amounts of stock and running out. i can’t find anything. finally i give in and decide to try the at&t store on 59 near lakewood nee compaq center nee summit. (this is around 10:00am.) about 20 or 25 people in line. i get in line. about 5 minutes later, at&t employees come out and say no one after about the 8th person in line will be able to get an iphone. i go back home. now i’m really dejected. i search around some more for stories about iphone scarcity. nothing. i get in touch with dwight silverman (of houston chronicle and technology bytes fame), who says he was just getting reports that houston at&t stores are all out. but he’s heard nothing about the apple stores being out. *sigh* finally, i give up and decide to go to the (bleh) galleria. (this is around 11:15am.) i get to the galleria and there is a line of probaby 100 to 150 people. there’s no way. it’s just not worth it. i instead go to sbarro’s and get a couple of slices of cheese pizza.
as i sat eating my slices of pizza, i kept thinking “hopefully tomorrow. surely it can’t be as bad as today. right?” i guess at least maybe this helped me miss the massive amounts of problems people had activating the devices today. ah, the glory of bittersweet victory.
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failure is not an option. it's a requirement.
My how the mighty have fallen. I remember an earlier, cell-phoneless (and I don’t just mean iPhone-less, but the no cell phone at all kind) Terry. Yes… those were the days. Nary did I think I would ever be reading a story about a guy that I used to think of as old school running around town looking to buy a cell phone the first day it comes out. And no one even had to beat the story out of him (a la Walter Sobchak). *sigh* what next?
What next?? My guess is Twittering.
🙂