Love Letter to my Blackberry

By kate on October 20th, 2007

Yesterday, I had a bad day. One of the main reasons was because I was stuck in awful traffic (related to the Ballard Bridge closure) for at least two hours. I missed playing Ultimate Frisbee and instead spent a furious and frustrated time behind the wheel, with the car at a standstill.

My Blackberry kept me sane. Using it, I could vent my frustrations (via Facebook status and Twitter). I warned my friends away from the area the same way. I caught up on blogs. The Blackberry gave me a connection to the outside world that kept me interested and distracted from the fact I wasn’t getting anywhere. (I should note that I only used the Blackberry when my car was stopped, of course.)

When I thought more about it, I realized that my Blackberry makes many bad situations better. Anytime I have to wait (be it a waiting room, a railroad crossing, whatever), I have fresh reading material at my fingertips in the form of blogs I subscribe to. I can quickly keep up on what most of my friends are doing by checking Facebook and Twitter. I never have a bored moment. I can ask my friends for help or company if I want.

This is all on top of the basic calendar, contact, email, and map functions on the Blackberry, which I take for granted so much I hardly notice them.

My Blackbery is a Pearl, so it has a camera as well. I never thought a cameraphone was important until I got one. Now, I find myself using the camera frequently. Yesterday, I redeemed the day somewhat by stopping in a local store and finding not just one, but several options for our new bathroom vanity. We had been desperately searching all over online with no luck, but at this store I found some that fit our criteria. I whipped out my Blackberry and took pictures of each one, emailed them to Steve, then called him to discuss them. We were able to decide together and make a purchase right then, thanks to the Blackberry.

I even installed a timer application on the Blackberry recently so that I can use it to measure Ruby’s time outs while we are away from the house.

I guess the term “crackberry” is not inappropriate because of the way it’s integrated into my life. You may jeer, but I feel that, rather than taking me away from my life, it’s enriching my life and my social connections.