...and I lived to tell about it!

Last Friday, the UNTHINKABLE happened!

I went an entire day without my Blackberry!

AND it was a day that I was on the road -- meaning six hours in the car; four hours in various meetings -- and no cell phone! No email!

The thing was dead. Dead I tell you!

And I didn't realize it until I was half-way to Philadelphia.

After the initial panic -- I mean, I did have three other electronic gadgets in the car with me -- a GPS unit, my Amazon Kindle, and my iPod -- not to mention my laptop -- I relaxed a bit.

By "a bit" I mean about 30 seconds.

And then I started smelling burnt toast!

(Side note for the uninitiated to "Stocker-isms" -- smelling burnt toast is a sign of a person having a stroke!)

By Lancaster I had taken the thing apart -- yes! -- it is possible to drive and take apart your Blackberry at the same time! Safely!

I did a hard re-start -- NOTHING!

By Morgantown I was in a cold sweat -- no phone! What if the car died? What if I got a flat tire? Could I rely on my "looks" to get someone to pull over and help me?

By the time I got to my client in King of Prussia I could barely see straight. My hands were actually shaking and I was in a cold sweat... what if the office needed me? What if another client was in distress?

I mean, come on! I had been incommunicado for almost 1 and 1/2 hours!

I remember NOTHING about the actual client meeting.

I actually had to ask my client if there was a phone I could use to call into the office! Which then brought up another issue -- I had to stop and think -- really think -- about what the office number was? I have it on speed-dial on the Blackberry!

And worse?

When I called into the office to share my distress -- no one really seemed concerned!

So it was off to Allentown for the second meeting of the day.

I honestly think I would have had a complete meltdown if not for the soothing voice of my Garmin Nuvi GPS telling me to "turn left" and "turn right."

After the second meeting I flew back to the office -- arriving about 4:30. Now normally, I would have just gone straight home at that point in the day...but I was so convinced that my professional world was burning down around me that I needed to stop in and read email -- allay the fears of clients who wouldn't have been able to reach me during this crisis.

Co-workers looked startled to see me!

I raced to hook up my laptop and access the network -- 187 emails in my inbox!

Okay -- half were spam!

And the other half were important -- but not life-altering.

Everyone was fine.

Most people, when I replied, explaining the delay in my reply, hadn't even noticed!

Sigh...

Needless to say, I got a new battery on Saturday!

My name is Laura...and I am a techno-junkie...