Simultaneous
Aug. 29th, 2005 11:04 pmIn one short evening, I had my cell phone disconnected and met Delroy Lindo.
The phone thing: Cingular recently purchased AT&T. More to the point, they bought the AT&T signal towers, which means that my current cell phone, a hefty, chunky Nokia 5190, has a (24mb) SIM card that is incompatible with the tower in my neighborhood. Cingular tech support tells me to go get a new (64mb) SIM card at my neighborhood Cingular store. I go, and clever punk gets me the card and sets it to activate, then tests card in my current phone and voila! discovers that 64mb SIM does not want to play with Nokia 5190. He sends me down the street to another Cingular joint to, get this, ask them for a free phone. Apparently, people come in all the time wanting to upgrade their "old" phones, and they leave the damn things at the shops. So I saunter on in and make the request. Turns out they have no working extras right now, come back later.
Delroy Lindo: Walks into the second Cingular place talking into his headset about something obviously Hollywood. Not necessarily flashy, not necessarily for show-- the man's wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, so he's kinda on the clandestine. Anyway, I'm a big fan, but I respect the man's space. I walk up to him on my way out, pause next to him and extend my hand. "Sorry to disturb you, but-- thank you very much." He looks me over quickly, says, "Hey, I really appreciate that. Thank you," and shakes my hand.
I knew he was an Oakland Hills resident, but I just never expected to meet the man on Lakeshore Ave. As I was walking home, a oung man asked me for a quarter. "You see that Cingular place up there?" I asked him. "Delroy Lindo's in there." No recognition. "Aw, man, he's a big star. Go see him." The young man just shook his head like I was on something.
I was. I shook hands with Rodney Little and lived to tell the tale.
The phone thing: Cingular recently purchased AT&T. More to the point, they bought the AT&T signal towers, which means that my current cell phone, a hefty, chunky Nokia 5190, has a (24mb) SIM card that is incompatible with the tower in my neighborhood. Cingular tech support tells me to go get a new (64mb) SIM card at my neighborhood Cingular store. I go, and clever punk gets me the card and sets it to activate, then tests card in my current phone and voila! discovers that 64mb SIM does not want to play with Nokia 5190. He sends me down the street to another Cingular joint to, get this, ask them for a free phone. Apparently, people come in all the time wanting to upgrade their "old" phones, and they leave the damn things at the shops. So I saunter on in and make the request. Turns out they have no working extras right now, come back later.
Delroy Lindo: Walks into the second Cingular place talking into his headset about something obviously Hollywood. Not necessarily flashy, not necessarily for show-- the man's wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, so he's kinda on the clandestine. Anyway, I'm a big fan, but I respect the man's space. I walk up to him on my way out, pause next to him and extend my hand. "Sorry to disturb you, but-- thank you very much." He looks me over quickly, says, "Hey, I really appreciate that. Thank you," and shakes my hand.
I knew he was an Oakland Hills resident, but I just never expected to meet the man on Lakeshore Ave. As I was walking home, a oung man asked me for a quarter. "You see that Cingular place up there?" I asked him. "Delroy Lindo's in there." No recognition. "Aw, man, he's a big star. Go see him." The young man just shook his head like I was on something.
I was. I shook hands with Rodney Little and lived to tell the tale.