As I mentioned yesterday, in the space of about 12 hours, I managed to break both my baby cell phone (it was less than a year old, so totally still an infant) and my reading/blogging glasses (which were four and therefore preschool age).
At the same time, I had actually been breaking both the phone and the glasses over the course of several months, which I think takes some skills, in terms of timing.
Let’s start with my phone. Those of you who follow me on Facebook already know this, but this cautionary tale bears sharing with a larger audience.
I think that’s completely self-explanatory, but I’ll elaborate further:
When I head out for a run, I carry a few basic things with me. At a minimum, I have an iPod shuffle clipped to my clothes and my phone. (Remember the nearly naked dude? Yeah, me too. Hence, my concern for safety.) Some running clothes have pockets, but a lot don’t. And, if my running gear doesn’t have pockets, I have a fuel belt I could wear too, similar to this one. The thing is, sometimes I don’t feel like wearing lots of stuff. I just want to run unfettered. So for months now, I’ve been shoving my phone in one of my bra cups and using that as an ad hoc pocket.
Big mistake, as I’ve already told you. My phone had been acting wonky for a couple of weeks and on Friday after my run, it stopped working altogether. I removed the plastic “Starry Night” skin Pete gave me for my birthday and there was all sorts of moisture in there. Uh oh. I opened the back to pull out the battery and found more moisture. Uh oh. I dried everything off carefully and tried the rice trick, but the phone was deaddeaddead. Apparently, as with my skin, my sweat fried my phone. I must produce acid or something in my pores.
So I had been slowly breaking my phone for months and the coupe de grace was Friday.
I went out and got a new phone on Saturday. And then this happened on Sunday:
And I have since tried to stick it in my bra a few more times. I am not making this up.
I have ordered new running bras:
As for my glasses — which I might add are currently precariously perched on my nose with the aid of only one arm/stem over my right ear, but nothing over my left — I broke those too. I actually started breaking them about six months ago. One day, they were in their usual spot on the top of my head when I bent over to pick up something, the glasses fell off, and then I stepped on them as I was bending to retrieve them. Skills, I gots ‘em. One arm/stem was bent but not broken, so I just continued wearing them, thinking I’d get to the glasses shop sometime soon, but I never got around to it. For whatever reason — and I think it was probably Fate — on Saturday, my glasses finally gave up the ghost. After all, I had just dropped cash on a new phone, so why not some new glasses too?
So I had been slowly breaking my glasses for months and then the final kill occurred on Saturday.
Naturally, these things come in threes, so I’ve been prepared for what comes next. Only, it took longer than I expected and was not at all what I was expecting.
Yesterday I went for a quick walk at lunch time. While on a residential sidewalk, I came upon a woman pushing a stroller and dragging a dog. As we passed, the dog jumped on me and ripped my favorite running tights with its big ol’ claws. The tights can be sewn up, but it won’t be pretty.
(Yes, the woman apologized sort of briefly. No, she did not offer to replace the tights. No, I didn’t suggest she trim her dog’s claws or possibly rein the creature in more when out walking.)
(And yes, as one friend pointed out helpfully, I know that the tights will soon be too big for me anyway, but I was hoping to make them last through the winter and then possibly pass them along to another friend.)
Okay, so really, that one’s not my fault, but it does complete the circle of three, so I’m hoping that I’m done with the breaking and killing of possessions.
And that’s what I’ve gots for y’all today. Happy Valentine’s Day, if you celebrate it. If, like Pete and me, you think it’s a bogus non-holiday, happy Tuesday to you.
Happy Tuesday, Jen. This kind of reminds me of my brief (but perhaps returning) stint as the Appliance Angel of Death (Canadian Division). I hope your days of destruction are over.
Peace to you, and may things stop breaking for a good, long while.
oh my…this could be taken from my own life! Running bras and cell phones do not mix, I agree. But YAY for getting smaller, I know I’m loving it! lol
Happy Valentine’s Day to you too my dear! I hope it is filled with love! =)
Maybe Juanita Weasel needs a sign that says “MY MOTHER-F-ING TIGHTS ARE RUINED!!”
YES! YES! YES!!!
I’m exhausted–how much can go so wrong when you’re trying to BE GOOD AND RUN? Good golly.
Also, besides sweat being bad for phones, the small amount of radiation from your phone is not good for your boobs. Another reason not to store it there!
I wore a pair of glasses with only one stem for about 3 years after my 1 year old son busted the arm right off. I only wear my glasses late at night/early in the morning for the most part. But let’s face it: I was just to dang lazy to drag my butt to the optometrist despite having vision insurance. It was only a problem when I’d bend over to pick the kids/something else up. Then they’d swing off my face like crazy. Which of course the kid found hilarious. So maybe that’s why it took so long… : )
don’t know if you know this (but I do!) but if any type of moisture (sweat or otherwise) gets into a cell phone, and you can’t tell (it didn’t drop in the toilet for example) that moisture has gotten into the phone, but it eventually stops working (not by anything you can say you’ve done to it like dropping it out of a 6 story building) you take it into the cell phone store, to exchange/fix get a new one, there is a strip inside the phone that turns a color (I forget which color-blue? green?) that tells the cell phone store that YOU got moisture/water into/on the damn phone. I know this because when I went to turn in one of my crackberry’s—I was told by the provider that it was MY fault for it stopping working. Which, ahem, it was not. My cell never leaves my car, because I get no service in my house, so no reason to bring it in my house, much less my bathroom or shower area (which is what they were subtlely accusing me of doing) so I faught that until they finally said that they would replace the thing no charge. I was furious. But I think all cell phones have this handy dandy finger pointing mechanism (YOU broke the phone, not it just not working all on its own, which is what Blackberries are famous for doing). Okay, there’s my cell phone rant/story. That you found visible moisture inside your phone seems to be the obvious choice for it breaking, but when these cell companies try to blame the customer for something they didn’t do to their phone, I get all hot and blotchy!
I spelled faught wrong, but my brain cannot find the right spelling of it right now for some reason?
fought, there I did it!
Everyone in my family as broken multiple phones but me. I lead such a boring life. Oh! A couple of weeks ago I did manage to ruin a nice shirt when some spray cleaner backspashed on it.
I feel for you, sister. When I break my glasses, near blindness insues. I’m forced to go to one of those ridiculous one hour places that charge you up the yin yang because I can’t function with them.
I would have never thought to put my cellphone in my sports bra. You are nothing if not creative.
Yikes, that’s not an easy time of it.
I have my iPhone, and I think if I broke it I would be inconsolable. On runs it is so useful: it’s my iPod and my phone and my GPS run-tracker built into one! It goes in an arm-band, so no sweat to deal with. I carry that, and my key, and my drink, and that’s it. I do feel more free running that way. Honestly I don’t even like to wear a jacket but I will if it’s cold. My key gets taken off the key-ring and into the little tiny pocket at the back of my running leggings.
I love dogs. But people with unruly dogs piss me off. People whose unruly dogs destroy my stuff? Outrage.
This made me chuckle yesterday, and then last night the third mishap came in my own life, so I had to write about it!
I tried to store my phone in my bra once. It was the old candybar style phone, so it didn’t die immediately (that happened later with an ice-water shower at a restaurant) but when I pulled it out to use it, the sweat grossed me out, so I didn’t do it again. Since I don’t learn quickly, I appreciate you sharing your wisdom because I just had to replace my phone (dropped that sucker on the floor — flip phones are useless if you don’t have the top connected to the bottom).
The reading glasses? I buy mine at Costco in packages of 3. But the running tights being ripped by the dog That sucks.