Recovered The Numbers!

I didn't know if I could do it, etching out the hole for what is now my Micro SIM was tough, it sure as heck wasn't pretty and it involved a lot of elbow grease, tendon-pulling and Scotch tape.  But I was able to fit my Micro SIM back into my old flip phone in order to retrieve all the numbers in my contacts.

I followed directions I found online, although it was really difficult and I had to do it over two nights.  The first step was using a used-up debit card I was given for helping out with a brandy taste test to cut out a template of a regular-sized SIM.  That was last night, and I had to leave for a bit and come back because I was so frustrated that I wasn't able to cut through the card.  But I went back, realized things could be easier if I also cut on the other side of the card, and I was able to carve it out.  I was tired to continue by then, but I put it into the holder in my old flip and it was very snug.  Quite encouraging.

The next step, which I just did this morning after deciding I wanted to take a nap around 1 in the morning, was carving out a hole the size of my Micro.  What you're supposed to do is carve out that hole, stick the Micro inside it, and tape it down so it's secure when you put it back into the old cellphone.  This time the cutting wasn't hard, although the Micro had to be lined up in such a way that the borders along three sides of the regular-sized template were so thin I actually cut the back side off.  The problem was securing my Micro within this now-three-sided carcass, with two of the sides flaring out because they were so thin.

I put it into my old cellphone and turned it on.  It read, "Insert SIM."  Shit.  Re-jiggered the SIM and tried it again; same message.  The problem was that my Micro SIM was lifting off the contacts.  Turns out I did it right, just not well enough.  So I had to tape down that side of the Micro SIM to the flimsy side of this regular-sized SIM Trojan horse so when I fit it in, it stays in.

Tried it a third time ... and it worked!  And when I got into my phone book all my contacts and numbers were right there, as if I hadn't changed phones at all.  I spent a half-hour writing down all the numbers I didn't have in my day planner.  Didn't know if I had the time to do it before I leave for St. Louis today, so my right elbow is hurting me.  But I lifted all the numbers I needed to.  Then I turned it off, peeled the Micro SIM away from the template, put it back into my iPhone (it works, not a problem), then put the template back into my old flip.  You know, just in case I need to get something else in there.  At least I now know I'll be able to, and it'll be a lot easier the next time around, if there is a next time.

It feels good to do something you didn't know you could do when you started.  More importantly, I got some important phone numbers I was afraid were lost forever when Mother cut down my regular SIM card.  Foremost among those numbers are, of course, those of my stripper girlfriends.  But I got 'em.  You know, it feels like I turned back time in order to get back what I was afraid was lost.  In that sense, not only do I feel a certain level of accomplishment, I feel that I am whole again.  No, seriously.

Now I just wish I could find those bank statements I need to go through.  I had them all rubber-banded up from the last time I went to St. Louis.  I don't think I got through them the last time, and that last time was two years ago.  They are here somewhere -- I didn't take them out of the rubber band -- but where did I put them?  Oh well; I can only write down all the ATM slips I've saved up on the check registers I got after work yesterday.