My little purple ipod shuffle quit working a few weeks ago. It, along with Archie, is often my companion as I walk and I love the mix of all my favorite songs to push my butt up what the kids in the neighborhood call “space mountain” (which roughly equates it to the incline of the Himalayas). Anyway, I finally remembered to throw it in my purse and I off I went to the Apple store in the mall to find out what the damage would be to bring it back to life.
I was immediately accosted greeted by a perky girl in requisite jeans and a funky striped tee with cool apple accessories draped around her head and neck. It was kind of like stepping into a Techno-Seattle vibe minus the coffee. I explained what I was needing and she smiled at me like a patient mother smiles at a young child. “Oh, right. Well we need to set you up with a concierge at the genius bar.” I wasn’t looking for tickets to Cirque on a Friday night or a vodka and cranberry, so I looked confused, negating the word “genius” apparently. She rephrased, “You need an appointment.” Oh.
I dutifully rescheduled for a few days later and strolled back into the store to wait for my turn to belly up to the genius bar. Strangely, I didn’t feel any smarter, just way uncool. I gazed around the store as the bartender concierge checked out my pitiful little purple accoutrement. I think the macbooks and iphones were laughing at it, frankly. It was a bustling store of a wide range of people, all looking serious and nodding as words like “gigabyte” and “hyperlinks” were tossed about. They men almost all had cool glasses and large watches, with a slight five o’clock shadow on their face. It must be awkward to shave in the Starbuck’s bathroom when you are working there all day. The women were far and few between, mostly twenty somethings with their iphone emergencies (OMG Brittany, how am I gonna find you at East Andrews if I can’t text???? I am freaking out completely!).
I was the fish out of water as I took this all in. The very nice tech guy behind the bar pronounced that not only was my purple friend dead, repairing it would amount to the same as buying a brand new shuffle. I paused for a moment of silence, then I offered to leave the corpse on the counter so they could give it a proper burial and turned to walk away sadly. “Wait! If you bring it with you when you buy a new one, they will give you 10% off and recycle it for you” my concierge said smiling. Dang, he was good. That made me feel a little better, so maybe I did leave the genius bar just a little smarter after all….
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