It took about two and a half hours of standing in scattered rain, but at about 9:45 a.m., I officially walked out of the AT&T store near Southridge with a new iPhone.

Unfortunately, as I write this, it's not working.

Apparently, Apple servers around the world are down right now, and though activation and "unbricking" was supposed to happen in the store, we were all sent home with not-yet-working phones. So, for now, two hours after the purchase, I don't have a working phone or voicemail system.

Other than this fairly significant glitch, the process wasn't terribly annoying. When I arrived at the store at 7:20 a.m., only 35 or so people were in front of me. A palpable, nerdy giddiness permeated the scene, and no one seemed to mind standing in the pouring rain.

A half an hour later, the WLUM morning team of Kramp and Adler called me, asking me to weigh in on the situation. When the guys in front and behind of me overheard that conversation, they struck up a conversation with me about OnMilwaukee.com and the Brewers and all things Milwaukee. It turned out to be a lot of fun, actually, as we shared in this common cultural moment. (They asked if I'd blog the experience, and I said yes. So please enjoy, guys.)

The doors opened at 8 a.m., but they only let a handful of people in at a time for the 15 minute activation sequence.

One of the guys in line, who turned out to be a friend of a friend, had to leave at the last minute, because AT&T wouldn't let him convert his business contract to the iPhone. Even though he waited as long as the rest of us, he'll have to wait until August to get out of his existing contract. Bummer.

Finally, at about 9:30, I entered the store as supplies dwindled. Had I showed up even 10 minutes later, they would've been out.

The actual purchasing process went smoothly -- other than the fact that I couldn't leave with a working phone.

So now I sit, watching iTunes deliver its "unknown errors." People are freaking out on the Apple fanboy Web sites, too.

It's an annoyance, and Apple should've anticipated the server traffic. It would be a nice touch if they sent a gift card to everyone affected by this outage -- but it's Apple, so don't count on it.

For now, I'll take a Zen approach and wait and see. Hopefully, my phone will be working by the end of the day -- making all this rigmarole worth it.