UPDATE:
After two months of work with my cell provider and after the 3rd party insurance company declined to cover the damage and after finding out 2 years ago, my line was dropped from the insurance coverage, I have been paying that since 2005, I was given a brand new Samsung Galaxy Note II. Needless to say I am very happy with the outcome. Until I had to load all my contacts that was totaled to 1000..!@#$%^%%#Q seriously?! I do not have 1000 people on my contact list.....Had to take a full day to change it back to only 300. Then came the updated from my provider, I am no longer happy with the 21st Century and its devices (between the apps, games, widgets and sorting out my contact list again).... :( 

Yes, I am addicted,I am using my device.... :P






In the 21st Century, my device jumped out of my hand and onto a concrete driveway....

 

I was standing on my driveway and my cell in my hand, talking to friends then all of sudden the case separated and the top of the case and my cell headed towards the driveway..it was in slow motion, nothing I could do to stop the carnage I was about to witness. I looked down at my cell and I cried inside " WHY! WHY did you jump out of my hand to your unexpected death! WHY!" 
As I stooped down to recover the mangled body of my cell, I check for a heart beat, YES, it was still ALIVE! I jumped for joy only as a woman could do..... I was jumping around up and down, friends and family were looking at me as if I was in  a fit of NUTSO! I did not care, my cell was still alive. 
As I looked closer to the screen, that is when it happened, I cried, not like a little girl who had their lollipop taken away by some politician but as a woman whose favorite shoes were run over by a BIG, HUGE 18 wheeler...... The tears ran down my cheeks, I was sniffling, I could not see because of the large tears..... I was becoming MAD at my precious...MY PRECIOUS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!
The crack on my screen is not as bad pictured above but still UGH, I was so enjoying the 21st Century with this device.
I can use the S Pen on the screen just not my finger, I like the idea of not bleeding to death as portrayed in a commercial for a certain Cell Provider.
Now what to do, Should I go ahead and have my Cell Provider replace my Samsung Galaxy Note II or just deal with the crack until I no longer can use it? The idea of doing a backup of all my files and apps and games and photos and video basically everything on my cell is my world now, does not appeal to me.

In the 21st Century, A U-haul, VHS Tapes and Booze and a new man.
 

The day I met Mr. Horton McClure it involved, a U-Haul trailer, VHS tapes and Booze along with a 6 piece sectional.
Mr. McClure and my husband are longtime friends.
It was June 13th, I remember this date because it was my birthday. It was a beautiful day, sun was out, not too hot nor was it too cool, just a perfect day for a 4 hour drive from Charleston, South Carolina to Wake Forest, North Carolina.

The drive up was uneventful, traffic was lite, great music playing on the stereo, just a beautiful day until we arrived at Mr. McClure's apartment complex. Mr. McClure's complex did not have an elevator and he lived on the third floor. As I walked in his apartment, I met his parents, very nice people, much older than I had expected. I looked at the sectional thinking to myself, how in the world are we going to move this piece by piece down three flights of stairs, thankfully we had a trolley. With the guidance of Mr. McClure's Father the move was completed in an hour or so.

Each time Mr. McClure, my husband and I returned to the apartment for another piece, his Mother had gone through his apartment picking out more items for me to take.The addition of a coffee table that could not fit onto the trolley had to be hand carried down by my husband, Mr. McClure and myself, not fun, I was concern one of us going over the open stairwell as we maneuvered this huge coffee table around the corners, that table was a beast, at one point , the weight of the table shifted and I lost my grip, the table drop and slid down the last of the steps, I thought I heard the table exclaim "DAMN IT, you dropped me" I was hoping it was damaged beyond use but alas it survived.

As we stood outside to talked outside, Mr. McClure's Father went back upstairs and return along with his wife, they had two bags full of VHS Tapes and arms full of bottles of booze.
What were they planning? Why the tapes and opened bottles of booze? I was not in the mood for a movie and a drink....I was tired, sweaty and had a 4 hour drive home.... His Mother said I was to take the tapes and open bottles of booze....AH no...I relented and took the tapes but not the booze.
We said our good-byes and left before anything else could be added to our little U-haul trailer.

On the drive home,an hour or so into the drive home, something weird happened, something I have never ever experienced. Our Jeep with the U-Haul trailer, started slowing down as if the transmission had shifted into low gear, but that was not the problem, the problem was a sensor on the right rear wheel and gone (figured this out after we arrived home).
When a wheel sensor stopped working, the Jeep went into survival mode, a drive that takes no more than 5 hours with heavy traffic took 8 hours.
The dash boards light flashed on and off the headlights would dim and we could not speed above 45mph. Other drivers beeping their horns, giving us the look of " GO home, Get of the road, you idiots" I even saw a few one finger salutes as we were fighting the Jeep and the trailer.
The trailer was slightly swaying as we drove in that condition. After 30 minutes of this, it stopped, all was well until the dash boards lights went out and stayed out for the rest of the drive home. It was late, no one to call, could not abandon the jeep and its contents along side the road and leave, so we drove 45 mph.
When we finally arrived home it was after midnight, I looked at the stuff we had loaded hours before and wonder, was it worth all we went through and the answer I came up with was a big fat maybe......
The meeting of Mr. McClure and his parents were the highlight of the trip, the addition of the sectional, coffee table, VHS Tapes not so much.......
6 piece sectional = Free
Coffee Table = Free
2 bags of VHS Tapes = Free
Bad wheel sensor = Not so free
Memories = Priceless
The lesson I learned about FREE stuff: Hire a moving company!

In the 21st Century, Thinking back on my travels, Part 2

We are still in Spain, no one in my group has dared to use the bidet since :)
We decided to head out into the country side from Madrid to Seville.

So we took the train, it was not the modern high speed rail but an old train at the time. As we boarded the train a small group of men started speaking to us in Spanish, a few us that were fluent in their language understood what they were saying and let me tell you I do not blush that often but when I do, I am red from my face down to my nether regions <blushes>. One of my travel companion kept repeating " No Molesto No Molesto" which seemed to spur them on.....Finally I step in and stated the following" NO,Violencia contra monjas católicas " a rough translation would be "no, violence towards Catholic nuns "The group of men apologized, helped with our baggage and left us alone, they were bowing to us as they were leaving......My friends asked " what did you say, I repeated the saying and then informed them they are now NUNS" YES, I did it again.....I am such a prankster, I am so EVIL!!!!!
Thank you god, the men left the train at another stop and did not depart in Seville when we did or I would have been saying "NO MOLESTO" myself.....LOL

We checked into our little hotel run by a family. It was a very old building, it had a courtyard in the center and three floors of rooms on the perimeter of the courtyard, it was beautiful. Another three rooms for 6 girls.
My room was on the ground level facing an alley, as I looked out the one and only window, a floor to ceiling window it had bars, long thick black bars.I was thinking to myself, were these bars here to keep the guests from running out on their bill or to keep the street hoods from coming in....I think the latter was the reason:/

We decided it was time to exploded and enjoy the local fare, food and drink that is.....
We found a "bar" more like a whole in the wall type joint.....It was dark lit ground level dungeon.It was going to be fun or so I thought.......The Sangria flowed, the bar food was heavy the smoke from the cigars that the locals enjoyed made my head swim but I was determined to have fun.....So I did.....One of my travel companions stated, she needed to use the loo, well, in this place the loo consisted of two stalls with the side walls stopped at the bottom of the toilet bowl, the stalls were placed on a wall inside the bar not behind a door then proceed to the Men's side and Women's side, oh no no no anyone and everyone could see your feet either facing the said toilet or facing the room full of patrons, needless to say, NO ONE from my group ventured into the stalls.....I am adventurous but not adventurous.We left and headed back to our old hotel...All I remember was opening the door to my room and waking up with the sound of a vacuum in the hall ,the next day. I had the world's worst hangover......I saw stars and I took a deep breath.....I think years later I am still suffering from that hang over.
From what I remember after that night, We walked around, look at old churches,streets, parks and old people..... 
If you are interested in more of my travel pranks, er, stories email me at mary.mccune@gmail.com and I might tell you. :)
 

In the 21st Century: Thinking back on one of my world travels.



I have had the luxury of traveling to other countries,some centuries behind the western world and some ahead the western world. In my travels I went with a group of friends, great friends, great friends that love my sense of humor. Friends that love my love of pranks played on them by me ( insert evil laughing).

Spain and a Bidet
 

 In my group, there was 6 girlfriends, we had to split into 3 rooms. In my room, my roommate had no idea what a bidet was. I did not explain what it was until after her actions with it. She thought it was a really low water fountain. She exclaimed " They really do care for short people, look how low the water fountain is"
(she stands 5'8") and she proceed to take a drink from it. I waited and almost died from holding in my laughter.....I could not stand straight, I fell to the bathroom floor in a crumbled pile of hysterical giggling, almost wetting myself while giggling. When I explained what she drank from, she cried.. Not a whimper but a a cry that made me sad from allowing her to do that, but none the less I let my evilness take over...I am such a great friend, aren't I?
In the adjoining room to mine, they too did not know what a bidet was, they thought it was for washing their clothes......OMG! They heard my roommate crying after they washed the clothes they had on and asked why she was crying, I explained  what had happened and they yelled at me for allowing her to do that.......:)  I asked them if they knew what it was and they both clammed up, nothing, nada, so I knew they had done something that was not in the designs for a bidet use.. Later one informed me what they had done with their bidet. Seriously, I am the only blond in the group I knew and they didn't...Yes you can insert a blond joke here....LOL In the third room, they witnessed all the shenanigans and decided not to use the bidet in any way, form or fashion....Ahhhh, the smart ones!

How did I know about a bidet, as I child while traveling with my parents, I did the grown-up thing, I asked BEFORE I did anything with a bidet......:)