Well, the day after I had to get a new phone, my husband's phone also died, and once again I trekked to the Verizon store to get an early upgrade. (Our contract rolls over at the end of January.)

So, I walked in, and informed the perky salesgirl that I needed an early upgrade on my husband's phone. She pulled his number up on her computer, and then gave a tragic sigh and told me that since his number was a 9.99 plan, it wasn't eligible for an early upgrade.

This is when I put on the Very Friendly Smile. I was wearing my floor-length black leather coat and my black boots, so I felt slightly more badass than I usually feel. (And loyal readers will know fairly well just how badass I usually feel on an average day.)

I leaned forward slightly. "I have six phones on my account," I said, still smiling. "I pay Verizon an obscene amount every month, and I pay it on time. I'm a very good customer. I would really like it if you could find a way to make this work for me."

She swallowed, and then said, "Well... this is the kind of thing that only a manager can take care of."

I increased my Very Friendly Smile a few degrees. "Could you please find a manager then?"

She was more than delighted to locate a manager for me. He came over, and she gave him a whispered rundown of my desire, and then pointed to her computer screen. "That's what she pays every month," she said in what might very well have been a shocked tone.

I turned my VFS onto the manager. He was slightly immune to it, being a manager, but he also seemed to recognize the value of keeping a happy customer happy. I ended up getting my early upgrade, and then turned around and bought the new VCast LG 9900 phone along with all of the bells and whistles and packages, so I was happy, he was happy, and my husband is incredibly happy. This phone is not a PDA phone, but it's perfect for my husband--the man who had to have the big screen HDTV, had to have Every Friggin Movie Channel, had to have every game of every baseball team in the nation piped into our living room. It's a handheld media center that is just as cool to him as my PDA phone is to me.

We're a phone-happy house now. And yes, we've spent the evening sitting across the room from each other calling each other to get all of our nifty settings just right.

Soulmates. :)