Modern Technology

BlackBerry

Gotta love it. 

I've been assigned a BlackBerry as part of my new responsibilities at work.  I thought I was already well-connected with my laptop at home and cell phone which everyone has the number to, but I guess this was so that I'd be even MORE connected, should I be away from said laptop and someone sends me a rather important email message.  Point taken.

I have been able to use my BlackBerry for 3 days before, you guessed it, it stopped working.  I didn't do anything to it!!  I swear.  In fact, I haven't really used it that much.  I turned it on for a few minutes upon coming home from work the first day I got it, wiped it down (natch!), and familiarized myself with it.  The following day, I took it with me and turned it on when I went to lunch.  It just enforced the fact that 1) I rarely receive urgent messages when I'm at lunch and 2) the messages I do receive aren't the ones that need immediate replies anyway.  But, nevertheless, I felt "connected," and had the peace of mind that I didn't miss an earth-shattering email during my lunch hour.

Again, when I came home at the end of the day, I turned it back on and was happy to have received a couple of messages.  True, they weren't urgent, earth-shattering pieces of news, but some follow-up messages from a co-worker.  It was fun stuff.  It was all about sharing.  Of course, it had nothing to do with actual work! 

Not all my adventures in BlackBerry-dom have been all fun and games, however.  This morning, it came in handy when I had to email my boss that I overslept and that I'd get my butt in gear and be there as soon as I could (oh yes that did happen!).  See, it was very useful!  Nevermind the fact that the time it took me to turn it on, look up her email address, compose my message and send it, I could have called her and half the population of the firm before I was finally able to hit the send prompt!

I know, I know, I need to enjoy this time while I can because one of these days I'll be longing to receive a fun email from a co-worker, or to say, at a very opportune time, "Sorry, my BlackBerry froze and I didn't get your message."  What?  The earth shattered?  Some things I'd rather not know.