Sunday, June 27, 2010

Fan or Fanatic?

Ok, so I have to admit, I'm an iPhone fanatic. Now, mind you, I wouldn't have admitted this last week, if you had asked me on Wednesday or even Thursday morning. I would have told you that I like iPhones, I may even have admitted that I loved them, and probably also would have admitted that I was a fan of iPhones, but I would have definitely argued having been labeled an iPhone fanatic. So why the change from last week to this week?
It all started when I saw the upcoming features and release date for the new iPhone4. Being due for an upgrade, I decided to sell my iPhone 3G and see if I could subsidize the hefty $200-300 price tag. On June 15, after believing I had pre-ordered my iPhone 4, I happily placed an ad on craigslist to see what I could get for my iPhone. It was sold by the following morning. I got $200 for it. Since I only paid $99 for it originally, I actually made money on my iPhone. Nice. I never had a phone be a good investment before. Apparently the guy who bought it was planning on jailbreaking it to use on another network, so I hope it works out for him.
So, having pre-ordered my iPhone4, and having sold my old iPhone to pay for my new one, I thought I was all set. I would just have to pick up my new phone the following Thursday.
A couple of days later, I heard news reports of all the glitches the pre-order system had, so I called in to make sure I was all set. Unfortunately, I got the bad news: my pre-order hadn't gone through. If I wanted an iPhone before mid-July, I'd have to wait in line to see if I could snag a phone. So began the longest day of my life.
Thursday morning, I arrived at the store at 4:30am, dismayed to find 250 people ahead of me in the non-preorder line. (Luckily for him, Teddy was in San Diego that night, otherwise I would have dragged him along with me!) The store opened at 7am and by 9am people from our line were getting let through. 3-4 every half hour, and I had 250 people in front of me, so you do the math. Because we were moving up every half hour or so, (3-5 ft and a time) it kept you thinking that the line was going to break through at any point. At 11am, the people in line around me and I were sure we'd be out by 2pm. I kept thinking, I can stay till then, but only until then. At 1:30, when I finally realized 2pm was never going to happen, we were calculating 5pm. I thought, "Ok, 5pm but that's it. I've come this far, why give up now? But I'll definitely have to leave by 5:30 so I can make it to class." Right. By 6pm, and still no phone, and about 15 ft. from the Apple Store entrance, I had to make the tough decision to- skip class. Those last 15 ft. took another 2 1/2 hours, when I finally made it inside the store. 16 hours of waiting in line, and I was now the weary, slightly bitter, but proud iPhone4 owner.
There can be no doubt in anyone's mind including my own; I am an iPhone fanatic.
Honestly though? I'm pretty sure it's going to take me about 2 years to want to try that again.