iphone woes and a guilt free day (woes now resolved, if interested)

We are in the middle of a blizzard warning, so for the first time in a very long time, my school is closed (schools don't close due to weather around here, busses may be cancelled, but teachers are still encouraged to get to the school and teach the kids who get dropped off by their parents). So I have a guilt- free day off work today.

Before I knew that the school was closed, I was trying to text a couple of friends /colleagues to see what their intentions were in terms of trying to get to work and let them know about some road closures in case they didn't already know. Nobody was answering my texts. I had to contact my Vice Principal to let him know that my road was closed and I wouldn't be coming in at that time. He never texted back. Hmmmm. Through email, instead, I contacted him and he said he had indeed texted back. So some texts were going out, no texts were coming back.

I am not a technological wizard, but I muddled through with resetting things, turning the phone off and on, and the regular stuff. I then did what people do, I googled how to make this work. I have tried all the possible methods to get my phone to allow imessaging to and from my cell phone number but it keeps telling me it won't activate.

So frustrating. Anyone else ever have a problem with not being able to send texts or receive texts on their iPhones? (yes, I'm connected to wifi, and yes I know I can send as text messages, rather than imessages, but still, nothing is working.). (No, I can't go to an apple store, that would require a three hour drive). My last resort will be to phone my cell phone carrier, which happens to be Virgin mobile, and see if it's a problem on their end. First world problems, I know.

O.K., sooooo… I ended up spending a good hour and a half on the phone, first with Virgin mobile, who tried to figure things out, then they linked me up with someone from Apple. A lovely woman with a southern accent went through a whole bunch of stuff and as it turned out, someone that I messaged (have no idea who because I'm really not a big phone person) declared my message as spam /blocked my number. (No, there isn't someone who really hates me out there, I'm pretty sure) Because of that my number could not receive or send texts normally. She was able to reverse this and now I'm good to go. Technology - love it or hate it, but I could never have solved this problem on my own, so thanks lady from Apple.

The blizzard intermittently rages on outside my windows. I'm glad nobody has to go anywhere. Many businesses are closed. Take care, those of you who are in the middle of this as well.