I went through a whirlwind of emotions attempting to aquire an iPhone 3G. First off, let me explain to you WHY I wanted one so badly.

I had been living since October with both my 8 GB first gen iPhone and an 80 GB iPod (80 GB is way overkill as I only have about 20 GB of media). Two months ago, a terrible tragedy occured; my iPod showed the IPOD FROWNY FACE OF DEATH!!! This left me with only an 8GB iPhone, not nearly enough to house all my media.

When the iPhone 3G was released, I was ecstatic. It would only cost me $300 to get the 16GB iPhone I so desparately needed plus the added features. I also figured if I unlocked my first gen iPhone, I could get close to $300, allowing me to break even, plus get 3G and GPS.

But as July 11 approached, I looked it more closely and realized I would be paying $15 a month more (10 for 3G and 5 additional dollars for my 1500 a month texting plan). Finally, on July 16, I started my quest to find an iPhone 3G. The prior night, I planned to call the nearest five AT&T stores and the two nearest Apple Stores the moment they opened. I set my alarm for 9:00 AM, the time when the AT&T stores would be opening.

I woke up and started calling, but during my call with the second AT&T store, I discovered every AT&T store in the San Diego area was sold out of iPhones. At 10:00 I called the Apple Store UTC, a 20 minute drive from my house. They didn’t have any in stock. The Apple Store Fashion Valley, a 35 minute drive, was my last chance for the day. They said they had just received a shipment and a line had just begun to form. We rushed over and were there around 11:00.

By that time, there was a two hour line (according to a store employee). An hour and 45 minutes after entering the line, and moving no more than 20 feet (no exaggeration), I left san iPhone so I could make it to basketball camp on time. I called later and they told me they had been undermanned for the day, causing the slow-moving line.

At 9:00 PM that night, I checked Apple’s website to check the next day’s availability for the iPhone. To my delight, I discovered UTC would have all three models in stock, and Fashion Valley would only have the 16 GB white model, but that was the one I wanted. I planned to arrive at the UTC Apple Store at 9:35 to line up early to assure I got one.

The next morning, I arrived at UTC at 9:25 and was informed they had opened an hour early for iPhone customers only. I was upset, but figured I could still get one at the Fashion Valley store, a 15 minute drive from UTC. We arrived at Fashion Valley at 9:50 and were informed they too had opened at 9:00 for iPhone customers and they had also run out of stock. I was fuming, as this fact had not been posted on Apple’s website and I had not been informed in line the previous day.

After that my mom and I went shopping for about 30 minutes and were ready to go home. I planned to go to the local AT&T store and sign up for order fufillment and recieve my phone in a couple of weeks. As we were walking out of Fashion Valley, I asked my mom if I could at least go into the Apple Store to take a look at the 3G phone I wanted so badly. She approved so we walked to the store. To my surprise, there was a line outside.

As it turned out, they had recieved a shipment of iPhones 5 minutes after I had left. Obviously, I joined the line and an hour and 15 minutes later, I had reached the front of the line. An Apple Store employee came to the door to welcome me and asked which model I wanted. I requested the 16 GB white so he grabbed one and took me to an iMac. Five minutes later, I was walking out of the store with an activated iPhone.

Waiting in line was not as bad as I imagined; I met some very nice people and actuallly enjoyed the time.

Finally, I have my iPhone 3G and I’m LOVING IT!!!