Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The conversation in the airport

In the last 6 months I've felt my old habits for keeping up with all the little details of life just aren't working anymore. I don't have a really good way of managing a to-do list and my calendar, both chock full, and keeping up with email is killing me. I used to be able to keep a lot of this nonsense in my head, but I just had another birthday and guess what that did to me! But part of the problem is that I rely on an internet connection to get at the details I need -- RSS feeds, gmail, multiple calendars... Anyway, I notice this is especially a problem when I'm traveling. So, I've started to wonder if a Blackberry might solve my problem.

Yesterday morning I caught a 5:55 a.m. flight out of Kamloops to head to Vancouver for a meeting. In the switchback security queue I was surrounded by sleep-deprived people. Our pillow-creased faces became the common thread to strike up a conversation. The man in front of me had that familiar fish hook neck angle while he punched keys on his Blackberry with 2 thumbs. He wasn't even aware of the huge gap forming between his spot in line and the next person.

One woman was traveling with 2 huge empty suitcases in hopes that she could fit in some holiday shopping while on a business trip to Seattle. She was chatting with a colleague about their impossible workload, trying to keep up with office work while on the road, and missing time with her kids. I noticed that she was holding a Blackberry in her spare hand so I asked, innocently, "Have you found that your Blackberry helps?

WHAT? THIS? (madly waving her clenched Blackberry) THIS THING MAKES ME CRAZY. I COULD FLUSH THIS BLACKBERRY DOWN THE TOILET!

The gap in front of fish hook man continued to grow.

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