If it bothers you that much, DO something about it....

I bought a new phone. It's an ATT phone!!!!

Yep, after spending a days venting and complaining about Sprint and my phone, I finally settled on my decision to switch providers. This is scary, considering all the horror stories I found online about Sprint customer service. Then again, I'm sure there are horror stories for all of the wireless providers - nobody is perfect.

So, I went to Bethel yesterday to talk to an education class who was on their "teaching science" section. I went to show them a portable version of my instrument in lab and to talk about different concepts they could introduce into a classroom using it, such as the structure of atoms (protons, neutrons, and electrons), the periodic table of elements, etc. There are 3 girls in the class, all of which are wanting to teach elementary, so their science isn't very strong, nor does it need to be. That's why we are there.

I'd talked to them about my research before, but they didn't really seem to connect to it well, so this time, I decided to keep it as simple as possible (I struggle with that sometimes, it feels as though I'm "lying" if I don't mention everything.), showed them lots of pictures, and let them see the instrument running. I think it made sense! They seemed very excited about it and kept going up to the instrument and looking through the magnifying lens on the cover. I was just glad they weren't bored.

So, back to my new phone...

After I got out of Bethel, I went to the mall looking for the ATT store. A guy - can't remember his name, but I won't work with him in the future anyway - came up to me, very nice, and started to try to "help" me out. I have to admit, I've gotten so much better about buying electronics. I now look up reviews, do price comparisons, the works! (I used to be a BAD impulse buyer and would grab whatever was there and would get stuck with junk, this happened very often.) Needless to say, I had already looked up reviews on all the phones they had, especially the new slider phones, and came in with 2 phones in mind. The Sony Ericsson phone I liked had several features that were nice, and I didn't have to have multimedia to use them. The other phone was a Samsung and was a 3G phone - apparently better at streaming video, etc. Well, the ATT guy tried to tell me that the 3G phone was so much better than the Sony, blah, blah, blah. I already knew the phone call quality was better on the Sony. He then told me that I would be required to purchase the MediaNet and messaging package in order to get the $50 rebate available, on BOTH phones. I was not happy about it, but I'd still be saving a lot of money by switching, so I wasn't too concerned about it and left the store to wander the mall (I'm there, aren't I?)

Imagine my surprise when I tell my friend what happened and she replies, "3G?! We don't even have the towers in this area to support that! Don't bother!" Great! This guy didn't know what he was talking about! Last night, I ran across the information for the rebate and saw that I was NOT required to get the media packages on either phone to get the rebate!

Well, it still didn't deter me from getting the phone I wanted (the Sony) at a much cheaper price. It was $10 cheaper online, I can get the rebate, and I managed to find a promotion code to discount my order $25. All in all, I saved the money on the activation fee! :) Yes, I know it means I have to wait on my phone - I'll probably get it next week sometime, but I got the phone I wanted, the color I wanted, and with the plan that suited my needs.

I can't wait!

I can't take it anymore!

I hate Sprint.

I hate their service, their customer service, and pretty much everything about them.

When I moved to Indiana back in 2003, I had Cingular.  I didn't have any problems with them, however, the closest store was 100 miles away - in Chicago.  I decided to cancel my service and transferred to Nextel.  Once again, I had no problems with their service - it was amazing.  I never had dropped calls, sure, their phones were more like bricks than anything else, but they were sturdy.  Roaming didn't exist and so, if you had signal, you had great signal.  Course, on some parts of the highway, where there were no Nextel towers, so you had no signal at all, since they did not share towers with any other provider.

I moved to Texas in 2005 and kept Nextel.  Then it happened...  Sprint came out with the RAZR phones.  I had to have one.  I wanted a cool phone.  I got wrapped up in the hype and decided to transfer my service to Sprint.  By now, Sprint and Nextel had merged and I figured it was only a matter of time until Sprint and Nextel would together be awesome.  Fortunately, I wasn't charged anything to transfer and I even got to keep my number.  Then the problems started.

I have to admit, Sprint didn't seem to be too terrible at first.  I'd have an occasional dropped call.  Every once in a while, my voice mail didn't seem to work.  Once, my voice mail was randomly reset and I lost all my voice mails.  Enough time would pass between "events" that I would naturally forget that all of this stuff was happening.  Then the time between "events" got shorter and shorter.  Now, I can recall several instances in the last few days even that I've hated Sprint.  Just a few days ago, my phone call was dropped FOUR times!!  50% of my voice mails take a couple of days to post on my phone.  I'll miss phone calls and not even know my phone rang - though that one is less frequent.    

I hate Sprint.  I'm convinced my RAZR is junk. 

I went to a store and to complain about the battery life.  After wandering the nearly empty store for 20 min, I was informed that the technician was not in and would not return for another few hours.  It was the middle of the day on a Saturday!

I've suddenly "seen the light" and have started reconsidering my options.  I realized too late that my rate plan is too low.  I'm constantly going over on minutes, but changing my plan automatically tacks on more time to my contract.  I'm seriously thinking about canceling my contract, biting the bullet and paying the fees.  I hate the idea of having to update my number on EVERYTHING and to EVERYONE, but I've done it before.  

I guess I'm gonna switch carriers...

Updates! Updates! Updates!

It's been a month since I last updated - so this will be my whirlwind of updates.

Let's see... Last month I had a conference in DC. It was for the people who fund the fellowship that pays me this year. The National Science Foundation was having their annual meeting and invited people funded through a specific grant to go - so I went. Despite the meeting only lasting a few days and including just a few sessions, I think I got a lot out of it. I got to meet important people at NSF as well as several other students that had much more experience working with teachers and kids in the community. I have just now started to talk to a teacher who I'd like to work with next year to try to get her kids more interested in science - who doesn't love science??

We got to do some sightseeing - the National Portrait Gallery - where I got to see Stephen Colbert's portrait hanging in the bathroom hallway.

We also got to go to the Holocaust Museum - very sad - and mostly disturbing.

So, since then, I've found out that my brother is ENGAGED! It's exciting news but shocking nonetheless. He's been with his now-fiance for a few years now, but they've known each other for several years, 10 I think. Anyway, their wedding is this summer, so I'm already planning on heading down to TX for that.

My grandmother also passed away a couple of weeks ago. She was 91(?) and after her stroke in 2002, she was just never the same. I wasn't able to go home for the funeral, between having one day's notice and fighting the flu, I just couldn't make it. One good thing that came out of this was reconnecting with one of my favorite cousins growing up. My grandmother raised her since she was 4 (she's 5 years older than me) and so every time we'd go visit my grandmother in Del Rio, we'd hang out with her - she was cool! We'd sit in her room and listen to Martika. Anyway, she found me on myspace and we've been able to talk - it's been 16 years since I've spoken to her.

Finally, there's Easter! I went to Virginia to go visit my best friend and her family. I got to see Tommy...

and her mom (who was also visiting) and meet some of their new friends there in Virginia. There was an Easter egg hunt for the kids and Jessica's mom made tons of food: brisket, rice, beans, and of course, homemade flour tortillas. I was in heaven! Getting there was no fun - there was tons of snow in Chicago, so I took off a day late, but I was just glad to be there. I spent the rest of the weekend playing Guitar Hero!

This last month has been a mix of ups and downs and sideways, but it's been interesting to say the least.... I will update more regularly next month... hopefully. ;)