#5 Waiting in a TSA line at O’Hare Airport

#4 Being woken up by the dog at 2:30 am

#3 Deciphering Medicare enrollment

#2 Buying a car

#1 GETTING A PHONE UPGRADE

Yesterday was the day. Verizon’s offer on discounts for trading in older iPhones for the new iPhone 13 models ends at the end of this week, so Barb and I decided that it was a good time to upgrade our beaten up, cracked, perfectly functional, old phones for some spiffy new ones. And of course, Laury’s phone was to be included, under terms of her “forever plan.”

The nearby Verizon dealer we tried to visit was closed, despite posted hours that indicated it should have been open. So we headed north on Milwaukee Avenue to where we remembered another dealer to be, only to find they had moved. A Google search identified the newest location, and we drove over. I should have known by then it was going to be a rough day!

One lucky break; there were no other customers in the store when we entered–we just beat the rush, customers who came in later than we did were facing two-hour waits.

With the store empty, we were pounced on by a sales associate immediately. Our pouncing sales rep surely recognized us as a big whale to reel in. He raced us through the various different iPhone 13 models, eager to sell us the iPhone Pro Max Super-Deluxe-Fancy-Pants-with Five Cameras model. He was clearly disappointed when we chose the more “mid-level” selections, but he was not to be thwarted in getting us to spend every possible cent.

The upgrade/option parade began. “Don’t you want more memory? Sure, this is enough for now, but maybe you will wish you had a few hundred more gigabytes two years from now. And your unlimited plan is OK, but if you pay $40 more per month you will get a more unlimited plan plus a bunch of streaming apps you probably won’t use. And don’t you need insurance? The cost per month is more than you are paying for the phones, but don’t you want the peace of mind?” The only hustle missing was the “let me talk to our manager and see what we can do for you…”

Somehow we resisted all most of his pitch. Yes, in addition to our phones, we did leave the store with an assortment of cases, screen savers, and a wireless charger that I will be returning today because it doesn’t work.

I won’t go into how much hair I pulled out transferring the data from my old phone to the new one. I am sure our incredibly slow home wi-fi has something to do with the 3-hour ordeal, but maybe Barb had it right when she told me my brain clearly lacked the memory and storage for another update.

I don’t mind. I may be growing oldish, but at least I have a shiny, new, blue, iPhone. If only I could get it to talk to my watch…

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