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I’ve had plenty of adventures at the World Cup. I’ve even had adventures getting ready to leave. Why should this one be any different? I’ve been working on a book about our travels around the world, and at the same time, was planning on writing a blog about my experiences in South Africa. I wanted to tweet, foursquare, blog, and otherwise complete engage in the sharing of our adventures as part of my personal mission to share our passion for soccer with not just our friends and family, but to take part in some small way in explaining to Americans why the rest of the world loves soccer so passionately.
There’s just one problem: my Droid phone wouldn’t work in South Africa, and I didn’t have the budget to finance my own technological arsenal. Fortunately, upstairs from my store, Simply for Giggles, there’s social media expert Nathan T. Wright of LavaRow. He introduced me to his contact at Verizon, who was lovely enough to supply me with a Blackberry Tour and in HP Mini Notebook. This would allow me to Skype to my children back in the USA, as well as report every detail immediate and mobile.
I started carrying the Blackberry Tour in the days leading up to the trip in an effort to re-learn the Blackberry OS. Here’s where the trouble started: I went out one night and somewhere in the evening the Tour was stolen. That would be bad enough, but it gets worse. I was very focused on wrapping up at work and packing, and didn’t notice the phone was missing until 4 AM, 3 hours before we were to leave Des Moines.
Disaster. Utter disaster. I emailed Karen, my contact at Verizon, hoping that there was some way to get another phone on our 18 hour layover in Boston. At this point, I was desperate and willing to go to any number of Verizon locations, pay almost any penalty with money we definitely didn’t have. I had gotten very comfortable with the idea that I would be able to call my kids whenever, and I wasn’t too excited to tell my mom that it wouldn’t happen.
As it turns out, Karen and the people at Verizon work miracles on short notice. Not only did she find a loaner Blackberry Tour for me, but her contact in Boston brought it to the airport for me. Even better, he delivered it in front of my mom, so instead of being the idiot that had her phone stolen and didn’t realize it in time to do something about it, I’m her daughter that has people bring phones to airports for me. How’s that for an upgrade?
This isn’t even the first time Verizon has worked a miracle for me. The last time I was in New York, someone spilled coffee on my phone and sent my brand new Droid to an early grave. Like any parent of young children should, I had the insurance on the phone, but Verizon rushed my replacement and got me a new phone with all my contacts loaded in under an hour so that I would have it for my flight that day.
So if you enjoy my photos and tweets this World Cup, thank Verizon Wireless. They’ve earned my business for life, twice now.
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Soccer....Family Style 