No iPhone, Day 3

The word is "workaround." For nearly 4 years, I have had the iPhone in my pocket to help me accomplish an unbelievable amount of tasks. Now, with no iPhone, I'm having to remember how to accomplish things on my own, without the assistance of the most sophisticated consumer technology in the history of the planet. Here are the most important 4 things that I've come to rely on the iPhone for:

1. Phone calling. This normally simple task has proven to be nearly impossible for me the last 3 days. Assuming that I can figure out how to even MAKE a phone call on this borrowed LG Chocolate, I don't know anyone's number. The iPhone has done a great job of freeing up hard drive space in my brain by storing phone numbers for me, including people who have had the same phone number for 5+ years. Thank goodness I have the Address Book in the Mac, or I'd be toast.

2. Text messaging. I've tried the T9 word thing, I've tried just going standard, I've tried yelling into the phone to get it to dictate it for me. Nothing. In addition, I have the same problem as above regarding not knowing any numbers. If someone texts me, I have a short conversation with myself wondering how mad they'll be at me when they never get a response from me.

3. Music. I've totally got this one covered; the workaround is my old iPod classic. I actually have more music than I could ever fit on the iPhone, so having nearly my whole music library with me has actually been kinda fun. That said, the whole reason I wanted the iPhone in the first place was because I was tired of carrying around two different devices. I spent some time yesterday trying to glue the classic to the Chocolate, but I have yet to discover the right glue for the job.

4. Appointments. Again, I find myself turning back in earnest to my MacBook. The address book in the computer has always synced up automatically with the iPhone, but now I don't have the constant reminders or access to my events. (It should be noted that I used to miss a LOT more appointments before I got the iPhone. This is probably the most beneficial purpose it has served.) Now, when I start my day, I pull a page from the Mike Rawalt playbook: sticky notes. I just look through my appointments for the day, and use the appropriately colored sticky note to match my mood for that day.

There are many other things that I could and would be using my iPhone for if I had it, but these are the top 4. Facebook, email, wikipedia, and a myriad of other web tasks can easily be accomplished on my laptop; I just can't be as mobile with all of it.

The one thing that is definitely killing me is that I was leading almost ALL of my Words With Friends games, and by the time my new iPhone shows up, they will have been automatically deleted. I hope that I can get my swagger back...