Stupid Government Phones

 You know those Facebook ads that say that if you’re on food stamps or Medicaid you can qualify for a free smart phone and free service from the government? (The ads always use the word “government.”) I have both food stamps and Medicaid, so I qualified for a phone. Which was super cool, because that was one thing I wouldn’t have to worry about paying for each month.

Except…….

I know beggars can’t be choosers and technically I’m a beggar. But it took me sooooooo long just to get the phone. First they claimed they sent it and promised me for two weeks that I’d get it, even told me they “100% guaranteed it would be there within 3 days… only to finally tell me, “Oh, I see the problem.l. We don’t offer free shipping, so we didn’t send it.” They never told me to pay for shipping or gave me any sort of way to pay for it… they just pretended for three weeks that it was in the mail. Then after another 2 weeks of promising me that it really was coming this time,and giving me a Fed Ex tracking number that just said “pending” forever, the phone suddenly arrived. 

It’s a reaaaaalllyyy junky phone. It’s a smart phone, and it’s functional, and I know I shouldn’t complain, except…….. it doesn’t have a lot of the things I used a lot on my old phone, like a compass (which is good for people who get lost a lot…   GPS by itself isn’t always dependable.) 

Plus you can’t send pictures or links through text. (At least, it does t seem like you can. But I was able to text pictures back and forth with Chuck’s son Chuckie for no apparent reason. Just him and. Oboes else. No idea why.) 

This actually caused Jae to be a little, because he sent a whole Bu ch of pictures with texts to me over the past few days and I never replied… because I never got them. When I figured out I wasn’t getting his texts, Jae said, “I just thought you needed space from me. I thought you were mad,  but I couldn’t figure out why.” 😭😭😭

I told him, “I’m never mad at you and I never need space from you!” Jae is an alien like me but he knows more about surviving on Earth than I do. He’s my alien brother. I won’t ever need space from him or Maggie. 

I’m on a super super super tight budget (basically I can pay my rent, and not much else, with what I make at my job) but I’ve got a plan. I’m gonna save $10 a week out of the money I get from my rocks, and when I have $150 I will get a better phone. Probably a refurbished one, but as long as it has a compass and a camera and can send pictures I’ll be a lot happier!

Anyways… it’s 3:30 am so I should probably sleep or something. I didn’t have to work this week, so I’ve been staying up waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too late. On days when I don’t work, I really don’t require a lot of sleep. I could probably stay up for days at a time just doing arts and crafts and fun stuff. It is work that drains all my energy and mental resources. Just my 4 hour workday leaves me with zero spoons. 

So goodnight, sleep tight!