At least I tried to surprise him...

First of all you have to understand a few things about my husband. He LOVES all things technology. And he loves surprises. Herein lies the problem....those two things are not compatible. I don't know enough about the latest and greatest products to be able to surprise him. He has to send me a link to a website that has the exact model that he wants. No fun for him.

But this year I had a Christmas idea for him. An iphone. He's been wanting one for a long time and has held out on buying one waiting for the perfect model with the right amount of memory and new cool features to be released. I knew a couple generations (I think they are called) had been released so I thought I was pretty safe.

What follows is the story of my attempt to purchase technology as a surprise for my husband. It's kind of long--sorry.

Tuesday: Mom took Aliza for the morning so Josiah and I ventured up to the AT&T store to purchase an iphone. Attempt failed because I was not an authorized user on the account. That's right. We've been married for 7 years and I'm not on the cell phone account. The salesperson says just tell your husband you want to change the plan....have him call and add you. Totally UNbelievable. I would never change the plan and Jeremy would know something is up. I call Mike, Jeremy's partner, who says that he will convince Jeremy to add him to the plan. Far more believable.

Tuesday afternoon: Chrissy tells me that all I have to do is log in to Jeremy's online account and add myself as an authorized user. She has walked through it herself and it looks easy enough. I go for it. In the process I reset Jeremy's password. He receives a text message from AT&T with a temporary password. Thankfully, he calls Mike....and I tell Mike to make up a good story. He does because Jeremy never suspected me.

Wednesday night: Jeremy and Mike pull a 14 hour night 8p-11a fixing a server. I email Mike and suggest that he pull up the AT&T site and add us as authorized users. He doesn't do it and so I assume he is never going to do it and take matters officially into my own hands!

Thursday at supper: I tell Jeremy that I have something I want to give him for Christmas. I want to surprise him, but he has information that I need to purchase it. I ask him to write down all his passwords. When he went to a movie later that night I hijacked his laptop, added myself as an authorized user and Matt helped me erase the history.

Home from the movie:
Jeremy: Did you use my computer?
Carla: Does it look like I used your computer?
Jeremy: No.
Jeremy: You erased the history.
Carla: Matt erased the history.
Jeremy: I got a text from AT&T.
Carla: Oh.

Friday: I knew that he had a good idea what was going on. So Chrissy and I took the children to AT&T store again to buy the phone. Once again no luck. They would not sell me a phone without activating it. Apparently people are reselling iphones via internet. So once again I had to leave without a phone.

Friday night: I told Jeremy the whole story in as much dramatic detail as I could! He had to agree that my story about needing his passwords was pretty good. I also concocted a story about how I was worried that if something happened to him there were accounts that I wouldn't have access to (That was after he was gone all night.). He also said that I could have added the iphone as a new number. He always has a good idea. Why didn't the talented salespeople at AT&T help us come up with a plan? Don't they want my money? As soon as our conversation was over he started looking for accessories so I figured he was happy.

Today: We went TOGETHER to the AT&T store and bought the iphone. Finally. It was anticlimatic for me, but he likes his new phone. Now I still have to come up with SOMETHING for Christmas morning.