When I woke up on Day 2, I realized I had several live-in onlookers heavily invested in the fate of my phone. As soon as they opened their eyes, they begged me to turn it on. So I did. Nothing. So I plugged it in, and walked away. About 2 minutes later I hear the screams reserved only for such things as winning lottery tickets and snow days. "Look Mom, there's light, I see a light!" And sure enough there was!

When the screen was illuminated and I saw that sweet little bitten apple, I had tears in my eyes. There were two areas that looked wet, one at the top and one at the bottom. Poor thing, I thought. It isn't the phone's fault that its owner is simply just a potato with eyes (this is for you, my fellow Orange is the New Black groupies).

My stupidity aside, I had hope. For like 2.2 seconds. Because the screen went black.  

     It went back and forth like this until I finally put the poor thing out of its misery and put it back in the rice. What you may or may not be aware of that the events leading up to my unfortunate phone mishap have made this scenario a bit more complicated. Last week, one of my kids got a concussion after being hit in the head by a swing during recess (true story) and I needed to be in close contact. This head injury came after the following list of these unfortunate events that all started when I found a dead frog in the washing machine (true story). The future concussion child got stung by a bee the same day as the dead frog was found. In fact, the concussion child thought it would be a good idea to keep the frog warm in a sock, that ended up in the washing machine, that killed the frog. Crap, I thought. I'm going to pay for this frog homicide. The next day our youngest child got strange allergic reaction where her eye swelled up 10 times its size and she was getting tested for cat, dog, and hamster allergies. At that appointment I received a phone call that our cat died (you can't make this up). That night we buried the cat, and when we checked on the hamster, the top of his cage was open and he was missing (I know you're like, this is bullshit). The youngest child ended up being severely allergic to cats (cat is dead), dogs (the dog is fine), and not hamsters (the hamster was recovered 5 days later, alive and fatter - what did he eat for 5 days??). Then, two weeks ago my Grandmother died. The freaky head injury on the playground was about all I could take, when the dog decided to make his mark on my comforter and my precious device ended up in the washer where I originally found the dead frog. Let's hope this is full circle people. 

     I share my tales of woe with you just to illustrate how important my phone is and was to me during these crazy times. I found out my Grandmother died on that phone. I told my Mom her Mom was gone, on that phone. The school nurse called me to tell me my kid was hurt, on that phone. I ordered quite a number of meaningful, yet unnecessary purchases, on that phone. Well okay, not quite as a important, but still. This made not going out to buy a replacement phone difficult. However, I had my trusty replacement paperweight of an ancient iPhone 4 for emergencies, right? I could do this. 

     My drive to work on Day 2 was not as frantic as Day 1. I had resigned myself to the fact that there would be no Pandora, no option to make calls, no sending emails if the freeway was a parking lot. I realized that only two songs play on the radio, one after the other, until the listeners' ears bleed, then a commercial comes on for either erectile dysfunction or teeth whitening or preschool programs. So I found a local radio station that played some songs I haven't heard in a long time and I was thrilled! Two words. Milli Vanilli. That's right. Blame it on the Rain came on. Then and there I had plans to download all of Milli Vanilli's songs because I remembered how much I loved them! Don't judge. Seriously, do not judge. They were good, and before you found out they were fake you liked them too. And I'm phoneless, and I like Milli Vanilli, and radio sucks except for this station that just played Sophie B. Hawkins and I haven't heard that song since high school and I had a crush on so and so, and that was my jam! Anyway, at a certain point I did realize that I was probably the ONLY person on the highway without a phone. And that made me nervous. BUT, I was also one of the only people I noticed with my hands on the wheel at 10 and 2, not looking down when I was supposed to drive (reading text messages, huh?), or talking on the phone. I had all of my faculties ready for the road. Even though I am very, very careful and use my hands free when talking on the phone, we all have to admit it does utilize attention that we should be using to drive and protect each other. A year and a half ago, I almost lost my life when a woman ran a stop sign and drove 45 MPH into my driver's side door because she was talking on the phone and wasn't paying attention. I guess it would have worked out well for me if in fact she accidentally put her cell phone in the washing machine the night before. Something to think about, peeps.

    When I checked my email in the office I got this from a coworker (thanks Heather M.):

     I also found out that the rice may not be my best bet, that the little silica gel packets that you find in all the things buy like shoes, purses, etc. would actually be more helpful in drying out my phone (thanks Heather O.!). And I have a dear friend that works at a department store that is hooking me up with a ton of these (thanks Kathy Q.!). I will update on this strategy later. In the meantime, there are thousands of people all over the United States camping out to get a chance to buy an iPhone 6. Considering all that has transpired for me, don't you think I should get a Fast Pass? 

On second thought...the replacement ancient iPhone for emergencies only phone? It died...I call bullshit. Day 3...bring it!