Things have been a little bit hectic in DC in the last few weeks, with Covey and me trying to hit up every neat sounding event that we come across.  Last week we hit up four countries in six days: a movie at the Austrian Cultural Forum, a sweet party at the German Embassy (I know, I know…), a Turkish Festival, and a Russian Bazaar.  By Sunday night, we were pretty much exhausted, so this week has been a little more low key.

Since the recent loss of the Gateblog, I figure the rest of us here at the KyleLibra.com blog network have got to step it up, so as I settle into a routine, one of us will be posting at least once a week, starting today.

The title of this entry came to me as a result of a funny little thing that happened to me yesterday.  After lunch, I went to the men’s room to… well, you know.  I noticed there was a guy in one of the stalls.  About a half an hour later, I had to go back to the bathroom to blow my nose since I keep forgetting to take a box of tissues in for my cubicle and I see that the same guy (black velcro shoes, immediately recognizable) was still in the stall. As I walk past I can’t help but notice that it looks like his feet are stretched out — like he might be slouched backward.  Immediately I start wondering, “Holy crap, what if this dude had a heart attack?”

So I stop in my tracks to listen for any sort of noise, breathing, groaning, anything… for a good five seconds there is nothing.  Just when I’m about to say something to the effect of “sir, are you alright?” I hear something:

Has this gone too far?

Click click clickee click click.

The dude was on his Blackberry!

After the relief of knowing some guy hadn’t died on the john wore off, all I could think was WTF!  And not just because of this guy, but because nearly every time I go to the bathroom and there is someone in a stall, I hear Blackberry clicking, it is f-ing ridiculous.  Talk about addicted to work.  A lot of the people around here cannot go 5 minutes without glancing at their Blackberrys for one thing or another, it has made me reevaluate my own portable device usage habits.

I have had an iPod Touch for about a year, and just a week and a half ago, I finally broke down and joined the iPhone brigade.  Actually, though, in DC, that makes me mildly counter-culture, dare I say hipster, since everyone and their mothers has a Blackberry.  At first I was disappointed to find out that I wouldn’t be able to access my Exchange work e-mail account with upgrading to the “business plan,” but now I realize that it may have been a blessing: maybe now I’ll can avoid being mistaken for dead, slumped over in a bathroom stall.

Still, there’s no question that I have a couple signs of mobile-device addiction.  And according to InfoWorld’s 10 Commandments of the iPhone, I may even be a bit of sinner (#2 and #6).

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