CrackBerry

Yesterday I seriously contemplated ending the life of my BlackBerry Pearl. Don't get me wrong, the thing is great and works wonderfully. It's just what the thing represents: a constant tie to work. I thought about taking it into the backyard and throwing it against the concrete and watching it shatter. I thought about taking it to a mountain lake to see how many times it would skip before sinking to its watery grave. I even thought about burying it in a deep hole.



Alas, it was not to be. I knew that the second I told anybody at work that it had perished in some "freak accident", another would be shipped to me within a couple days and I'd be back where I began. Albeit with a nicer, newer, shinier, beepier CrackBerry.

When we go on family vacations or camping and I KNOW I am out of range of ANY cell tower, it gives me joy. Pure glee.

It's a drug. A drug that I hate. Beginning at 8 PM each and every night I receive 6-8 email notifications about the status of certain computer backups at work and another 6 or so during the night, which I ceremoniously delete with gusto in the morning. And those are besides all the emails from fellow employees that work in the Philippines and still think I check the thing in the middle of the night. Stupid 13 hour time difference. I took 2 weeks of vacation when Marshall was born. During that time I watched the email number rise and rise until it reached the 150's. Knowing that I didn't have to answer ANY of them was a relief. It was like the feeling you get when you slip into a warm bed after being in the cold all day.

Technology is OK. It does lots of neat things for us. But most of the time, I'd be happier without it.