I always said that I would never combine work with play on my cell phone, and the photo above is evidence that it was all a lie. I turned to the dark side this week...beginning the end of the world. I will soon have a dirty little black thumb. Work issued me a beautiful Blackberry Curve, which I explicitly asked if I could use for personal calls. They said 'yes'. Normally I wouldn't have done this, but with travel it makes sense to consolidate my phones and phone numbers and only carry one device that tries to synchronize ever aspect of my life and identity into one little palm-sized nightmare. This was also the ultimate method to fulfill my parents' request (since the umbilical cord was cut at graduation) that I remove myself and my expensive iPhone data package from their family plan contract.
Not only are cell phones a health hazard that everyone now is ignoring like they ignored the health hazards of cigarettes in the 60's and 70's, Blackberries and iPhones are ruining the world across other dimensions. I have claimed for years that Blackberries are killing live human social interactions and ensuring that people who never before were required to be "on call" are now pressured to answer stupid requests from their coworkers while at dinner with their children. I can't go to any meeting or dinner anymore without people I'm with or people around me checking their phone for either an e-mail that just came through, call or text message while shoddily attempting to listen or contribute to the conversation going on in front of them. Didn't that used to be rude? Also, anyone who owns a Blackberry or iPhone for business purposes knows that "vacation" has become an ideal and not a reality. Now I succumb to that reality, even though I resisted for years and said I never would. Have I been brainwashed?
Last year I had to rip my brother's Blackberry out of his hand during our family Christmas vacation out west. After his repeated complaints/stress attacks about people at work e-mailing him and blaming incidents on him just because he was on vacation, I had had it. His coworkers had somehow managed to enter my vacation happy thoughts while carving sick ski turns on a beautiful mountain and took some of the hard-earned vacation time of not only me, but my sister-in-law, dad, mom, and friends. I hid the Blackberry for the remainder of the trip from my brother and he said it was the best thing I could have done for him.
"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?" Or, do you know what I'm talking about when I say that people can search and search all they want for love and never find it, but the second they give up and don't expect it, love comes knocking at their door? Well, that is how it happened to me yesterday...with luggage. Yes, luggage. My mom and I searched department store after department store looking for that perfect addition to my luggage set with the following, near impossible to find specifications:
- Solid wheels
- Small enough to fall under "European carry-on" dimensions
- Big enough to carry 1-2 weeks of clothes (pushing it here)
- Laptop protection
- Can slide over handle of another wheeled suitcase
- Cute
- Matches my other luggage
Just as I had given up for the day, since I was unwilling to compromise any of the above specifications for my imaginary piece of luggage, at 9:27 p.m. the miracle happened. I had painstakingly shopped with my patient mom all day for luggage in addition to those last few pieces to bring along on my trip like socks and belts and had HAD it. I was wiped and told my professional shopper mom that after I found this last piece of luggage, I was never shopping again. We opened, inspected, and critiqued over 50 suitcases that nearly fit the specifications above. But nothing quite did it. I gave up. Then, as a last ditch effort (which I was not confident about), we went to TJ Maxx and More. The intercom interrupted our thoughts as we walked in, "It is now 9:25 p.m. and our store closes at 9:30. Please make your final purchase decisions and bring your items to the checkout." I practically ran to the luggage section, saw a bunch of the same brands and models I had seen throughout the day at 1/4 of the price. I opened up a few bags frantically to no avail. Then my mom brought over a pea green piece that practically had light shining out of its zippers, screaming "I am the one". It was the one! Love at first sight! Now I can be done with shopping for the rest of my life!!!!!!
Well, almost done. I need two more items: a webcam and a mini-SD card for my Blackberry so that I can enter even deeper into the black abyss that is the dark side to consolidate my personal and work computers. Let the vicious cycle continue...
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