Thanks to all of you who signed up to win the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. There were so many charming and heartfelt comments that I wish I could raid the TMobile store and send one to everyone. But…I have only one phone.

Here was the highly scientific way we devised to find a winner. First, we printed out all the comments. Then we cut out each one..

… and balled them up and tossed them in a bowl. We actually had to switch over to a larger bowl, which helped mix them up a bit.

Then I let my son select the winner.

And the winner is – Maleia (a.k.a. commenter #9.) She says she’s a faithful reader, so that’s way cool. Congratulations Maleia. I hope your new BlackBerry gives you hours of addictive pleasure.

Teaser photo, TMobile
All other photos, JWJourney

UPDATE: And the winner is…

Hello, my name is Jennifer, and I am married to a CrackBerry addict. For two years he used daily, often neglecting important things like yard work and refilling my wine glass. But I was an enabler. I would e-mail and text him constantly while he was at work, and knew it was the best – and often only way – to get a speedy reply.

BlackBerry Pearl 8100

But then I got an iPhone and began the process of switching many of our services to AT&T. The bundling reduced our monthly bills, and would benefit us more if I could pull Rick over from our former provider once his contract renewed in January. It was an opportunity for him to upgrade from his CrackBerry Pearl. He could have the new Blackberry Storm or better yet, switch to the iPhone. He was reluctant. After all, he was addict.

Just after he ordered his last stash – a new CrackBerry Pearl – I convinced him to give the iPhone a try. After all, we were an Apple family. We have a iMac, MacBook, iPod and my iPhone. We even own about $2 worth of Apple stock. It made sense for us to share our vices. I did eventually win him over. But, we never ended up returning his new-in-box, never-been-touched BlackBerry Pearl 8100.

The box says it comes with the phone, SIM card, battery & charger, headset, USB cable, BlackBerry Desktop Software CD (I believe it’s for Windows, so good luck if you’re an Apple user), Get Started poster, and reference guide.

New in Box

After months of hanging on to it for no reason I thought I’d gift it to a friend. But all my friends are iPhone users. So, to you CrackBerry heads, it’s yours for the taking. Just leave me a charming comment by Thursday, April 23, and I’ll devise some random way to select a winner and announce it the next day, Friday, April 24.

Photos, TMobile (top) and JWJourney (right)

Recently, my husband — who’d brought his Blackberry to the beach with him — noted that it was “amazing how much perspective you get when you step away from work for awhile…that you begin to realize how stupid a lot of what goes on at work is.”

My immediate thoughts were: #1 how the words beach and Blackberry are so out of step are with each other.

And, #2 if it’s true that you acquire some kind of wisdom about circumstances when you distance yourself, then wouldn’t it be great if we could do that with every challenging or annoying moment in our lives?

Here are some examples of what things could look like from a distance:

• Traffic jam: amusement park bumper cars.
• Painfully slow, boring meeting: Kindergarten nap-time.
• Angry or not speaking to your boss or mate: time out.
• Gigantic powerpoint presentation: Lite Brite picture.
  
• Horrible cafeteria lunch: Le Cirque in Vegas
• Cluttered hall closet: sale day at Bloomingdale’s

You can do this with almost any scenario — blogging: daydreaming.

Driving home from ginormo store (yes. again.) I noticed a little sign posted on the side of the road. “SAT Preparation help”.

This sign made me think 2 things…one: weird place for an SAT prep sign…and two: there is no way I would be able to take the SAT test today…no way. It’s not that I got dumber as I’ve aged, but I can’t even remember how I got through it the first time. I must have though, I graduated from university and then went on to grad school.

I went to high school in the days before parental-supervision-for-every-freaking-overbooked-event in a kid’s life. So, it isn’t as if mom and dad sat me down in my junior year and said, ‘ok, let’s start preparing for the S.A.T.s together–so you can ace them and get into Harvard, ok precious oldest daughter?’

They were more like, ’something came in the mail for you from a college and you’re going.’ Boom. End of university chat.

I did all the “preparation” on my own. (Read–minimal).

It bothers me that I didn’t know enough or didn’t have the kind of guidance you need to plan for something that big. That one test and my lack of astuteness…often makes me feel that I approached a lot of things in my life in a sort of half-informed, confused fashion. And possibly missed out on some important opportunities.

It took a huge chunk of my career to understand that if you are asked, “what are your weaknesses” during an interview…you don’t actually tell the person: “Sometimes my A.D.D. kicks in during an important meeting.” You’re supposed to answer with some kind of positive insight: “If I have one weakness, it’s that I work 24/7″, and like that.

Had I gone to an interviewing seminar, or read a book, I might have been better prepared and more polished.

I’m just used to winging everything on my own: I don’t get too bogged down in planning…in fact I think my brain shuts down if it senses complex minutiae. I don’t make decisions until I can feel my gut telling me to do so, one way or the other.

Not too much preparation involved…but I wish someone would have told me a long time ago, it’s ok to wing it.

Do you think I’m under a bit of stress lately? I’ve certainly been talking about it a lot, haven’t I?

To relieve stress, I usually cook a ginourmous pot of stew or pasta sauce — which of couse is in itself a form of stress…the prep work, the chopping and especially the clean up. There must be better ways to leave your troubles behind.

There is, it’s called travel. I just came back from Vegas and had a wonderful time. I love everything about travel — truth be told, I don’t even mind the circus act that we know today as airport security. I love the language of flying, I love to stare out the window duing much of the flight…and I love, love, love hotel room service menus.

Eggs, over-easy, side of bacon and big pot of coffee…is the perfect remedy after a night of libation and gambling and whatever else it is that “stays in Vegas.”

Do yourself a favor, and plan a really nice trip for yourself and your significant other…but, before you do, take a little blogosphere trip to Fly Away Cafe, a wonderful Blog (isn’t that a great Blog Name?) written by Mary Jo Manzanares. Mary Jo is an expert on almost every little thing related to travel. FlyAwayCafe.com offers tips, how-to’s and overall an enlightened perspective on how, where, when and sometimes why we travel.

Have fun…and DO NOT BRING YOUR BLACKBERRY!

Oh please, just admit it — you know who you are, and you know what your problem is — you or someone you know has a very specific electroninc dependency…and it’s got to stop.

Sneaking around, checking potentially IMPORTANT e-mails, leaving that stupid blinking light on 24/7, even in the blackness your room as you sleep (or your partner tries to sleep)…oh, and the bzzzzz that scares the dog toward having a mild stroke — I’m begging you…take a break and get some help.

It’s your Blackberry and there are steps that can be taken. Read Adam Bryant’s thoughts on this supremely disturbing affliction in this Sunday’s New York Times.

And for goodness sake, it’s Memorial day…I promise, it’s just spam. No, it is.