I Dropped My Phone; It Was Ruined; I Was Way Sad, and Then I Got a New (and Much Better!) One [PHOTOS]

I have been a loyal Samsung user for years. YEARS. My Galaxy S3 was like an extra appendage. Yeah, I know we all whine and complain about people's being on their phones all the time, but WE ALL DO IT so DON'T JUDGE. Anyway, I lost my beloved yesterday and I almost lost my mind, too...

I was walking down the downstairs hallway chatting up our Digital Managing Editor (that's fancy people talk for Internet Genius), Ben, when I (in true Meg form) klutzed out and dropped my phone. NBD, I thought in the milliseconds before me phone hit the floor...

NOPE.

That mother must have hit the floor at the perfect angle, because that screen just straight-up SHATTERED. I picked it up, and when I touched the screen I CUT MY FINGER. I LITERALLY CUT MY FINGER ON BROKEN GLASS.

It was a really dark time in my life.

I immediately called my husband (who was in the midst of a super-important engineer meeting but answered the phone anyway because he is the greatest). I was inconsolable, but he managed to settle me down.

Yesterday evening we went to the AT&T Store in Cottondale. I'm actually not due for an updgrade yet, but thanks to AT&T Next, I walked out of that store with a brand new GOLD Samsung Galaxy S5.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD, Y'all. Gold.

It's going to cost me like $27 a month for a year, but not a bad deal on a phone this sweet. It's everything I loved about my Galaxy S3--only bigger, better, and GOLD.

I learned three valuable lessons from Phonepocalypse 2014:

1. BUY AND USE A DANG CELL PHONE CASE!
2. Pay for insurance on your phone.
3. If you skipped on #'s 1&2 (or you just can't wait to get a rad new phone), hit up your local AT&T store and ask them about AT&T Next.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a new phone I need to play with for hours...