ten thousand spoons when all i need is a knife

(... isn't it ironic?)

here's a little known fact about me: i hate calendars. i hate them. i don't like having to schedule things, i don't like having things to be booked or to consult my calendar to see if i can make plans. i really don't like it. it's stiffling.

however, unforunately and ironically, my life revolves around calendars, both personally and professionally. as an admin at kaiser my job is, (officially), a "booking coordinator"- fancy wordsthat mean i manage the calendar for a touring theatre program. as a therapist, my whole world revolves around 50 minute hours and who can be where, at what time... moving cancelled appointments around to make the most of my time, and my clients' time, switching days, planning drive time. and, as a busy & active woman with an equally busy and active man in my life, calendars are really important if we ever want to see each other.

at this time in my life, i think i work off of six calendars a day. my most important calendar, of course, is my personal one, which houses some kaiser work, all of my therapy work, church commitments, all of my personal stuff, lots his stuff, and things inbetween. this calendar, my trusty gmail calendar, is the whole reason i made the jump from a regular phone to a blackberry to a droid.... the syncing capabilities are the only thing i cherish and love in my phone, and definitely the only, ONLY app i rely and depend my life on. (that and words with friends, username kacicuteshoes, let's play).

that being said, my love/hate relationship with my calendar came to a head this week when i realized that no matter what i did to that little 'smart' phone of mine, the calendar would not sync. in the syncing menu, i could see that the contacts, pictures, email, everything had been syncing daily. the calendar had synced for two months. i had noticed, but was making do, but it was coming to a point of absurd frustration. i finally made some time this week to take it in, and i was not surprised by what they said..

'what seems to be the problem?' says the cocky, blue eyed sprint customer service rep.
'well, my phone.' i hand it to him.
'it's not syncing. the calendar, that is, the calendar is the only thing that is not syncing'
he looks at it. takes the battery out, restarts it. pushes all the buttons i had been pressing for a few months. stares at it. hums at it. puts it down. crosses his legs. puts his fingers up to his chin. turns it off again. turns it on. pushes more buttons.
'well', he says. 'it's not syncing. that's weird'.

really.

he moves around a few more minutes, pressing things, taking the cover on and off, batteries in and out and finally gives me the diagnosis: 'well, that's really weird.'
'yes,' i say to him, 'i know. the calendar is the only thing not syncing. everything else works. i've done everything you just did, and it's not working. so, sprint man extraordinaire, what ever shall i do?'

'you need to get this fixed. take it into a sprint store. not here, though, i can't fix things.'

again, i'm not hearing anything i didn't know. not only is this man useless (poor guy), but i am known (at least to me) to mysteriously corrupt or ruin electronics in ways that the fix-it people have never seen. it is not rare that i take a laptop or phone in and hear, 'hmm. i've never seen that before. we'll just get you a new one'.

so, i walked out of the sprint store on saturday, feeling good that at least i had pushed all the right buttons and my calendar was still not working.

fast forward to today, i took it to the sprint store that clearly said 'service and repair here' and underneath that, with a taped up print out, it said 'service and repair is not working today. come back tomorrow for service and repair'. frustrated, i spun on my heel and almost gave up, but then turned back around and marched it.

i explained the problem. they said they could do a hard reboot and it probably wouldn't work and it would wipe everything on my phone (they could back most things up though) and i'd have to go to another store for them to order me a new one. nothing but optimism here, folks.

i looked at them and said, 'but, you can do the hard reboot, and there's a chance it may work and then everything is good and i dont' have to get a new phone, right?'

'yeah. you could try that'.

so i told them to do it- that's how important this stupid calendar sync is to me and my everyday life. and i left them to work out my phone while i went to work out my body, praying for electronic magic to happen right in that little store.

the blessing of going through so many phones (i think 5 in 3 years), laptops (8, in 5 years, including personal and work), and other electronic things, is that i have learned that really, there is nothing that important that cannot be re-done, or re-downloaded. i have also learned to back it up. so when they threaten with big things like 'hard reboot' and 'does she know what she's going to lose?' i can just walk away, unscathed. and again, thank you for back up.

i came back an hour later, and my phone had no apps, nothing familiar, no saved settings, but after a few long moments of downloaded and uploading and syncing, that calendar of mine was right back on track. the electronic magic happened.

so Google, i salute you. for the fun and creative search engine pictures; for the cool shared docs and the google voice phone number you provide, for the awesome syncing calendar capabilities but mostly for the for the endless amounts of backup that you do for me. thanks for holding my hatred for calendars in such a delicate balance with my love for a busy life.