CB. The saga continues.

I'll be honest with you--I missed my CB when I was in Taiwan. 8 days completely devoid of the cheerful tones that welcome emails and text messages into my life... my old school ringtone not going off for days... actually waiting until I was in front of a computer terminal to respond to emails. I felt like I had practically returned to the dark ages. [Shudder] Despite my apparent removal from my ultra-hip and modern life during that trip, however, I made sure I stopped in my mom's office to respond to work emails at least every 36 hours.

Next month's agenda: Europe. 12 days. 8 days of "vacation" from work.

Eager to remain out of the dark ages, I found myself calling Verizon's Global Department yesterday in an effort to determine my options for my CB Pearl. Brian of Verizon mournfully informed me that since my CB isn't a "global edition phone", I would be unable to get global service. I could consider a rental phone at the rate of $15/day or a global satellite phone ranging from $11.50/day to $75/week, which does not even include charges for phone calls. Believing that my "availability" certainly could not demand that type of premium, I sent the following message to my boss:

"I called Verizon to price out getting email access on my trip to Switzerland/Italy. Verdict: insanely expensive. And, given that I’m backpacking, I’m not going to have a laptop on me. My trip will last 12 days. Are you going to die? Any other suggestions?"

That email spurred the following serious discussion today:

B: "You lazy, why can't you just carry a computer around Europe?"

C: "Uh... buddy? I'm going to be bringing like four shirts for my twelve day trip. I'm so not carrying my laptop."

Boss conceded the point, and asked if I would consider stealing the CFO's new i-phone instead. Always guided by my moral compass, I turned Boss down. We then turned to our head of IT as a last resort, who once again came through.

Good news: I will be borrowing a currently-inactive CB 8830, world edition, and upgrading to a world data plan for my 12 day trip. Wait, what does CB stand for again?