My plans today were honestly to spend a few hours tanning after work. I was able to get out early due to some late meetings yesterday and it was in the low 90s. Unfortunately, when I arrived home, it had mostly clouded over and well, that’s not fun for tanning. Then it hit me. Shopping is always fun!

I decided to warm up a bit and head to Target first for a new comforter. I got one that is shades of red and orange to brighten up my dark mahogany and black leather bedroom furniture. I didn’t realize it was a whole bed set though, and now I am stuck with these stupid pillow shams as well as a queen sheet set that probably won’t fit over my pillowtop mattress. Oh well the comforter was on sale. At least I can se that and the bedskirt. Sheets are a cute print for a handbag too.

After the Target rendezvous, I headed to Chandler Fashion Center. The goal was to enter the Apple store and purchase a MacBook. And I did. In fact, although I haven’t had a chance to do much with it yet, my goal for tonight was to be able to do the basics (check my email, send a tweet or 1,000, and blog). So this is my first ever blog from a Mac. Along with my MacBook, I got a cute little photo printer that after the rebate will be free! Score!

Uh oh, here’s the Apple Store:

And here’s me about a half hour later with my new found love:

My plans for the rest of the night were to head to get a piercing at HTC and then watch the Latte Art Competition next door at Cartel Coffee Lab. However, I was having issues deciding on a piercing and as I was waiting for everything to start at Cartel I just wanted to come home and set this cute lil thing up.

So here we go. We’ll see how much of my PC stuff will “migrate” over. I am almost guaranteeing I’ll still have to backup my BlackBerry with my PC.

I have to admit, that I cannot believe that February is already over half way finished. I had noted earlier that February was to be my month of fun. Honestly, I can’t even remember what prompted it initially, but I can tell you I have been so busy and most of it has been fun.

Some things I’ve done in February:

• Visited Vancouver
• Connected with amazing friends, old and new
• Celebrated a friend’s birthday
• Received Yo MTV Raps Cards
• Went to Snoop’s All-Star Weekend party
• Hung out with a friend from grad school I haven’t seen in forever
• Went to an art show
• Saw my friends win 2nd place in a film contest
• Almost bought a macbook haha
• Met another KSU Alumni
• Rediscovered the pool area in my community
• Received a new BlackBerry

I have many more things planned in the last few days of February. However, I am becoming burned out quickly. I typically enjoy almost any opportunity to go venture out into my new home sweet home, but I have decided that tonight I am going to bed extremely early, and that tomorrow and Wednesday at least are going to be time for just me (and possibly some trips to the gym). I’ll be bouncing back for this weekend though, you best be damn sure!

So today, I ended up getting a new BlackBerry Curve. I’ve only had mine 4 months. Let me first start by saying, i don’t really see this as a huge flaw or warning sign that there are problems with the Curve. I love my Curve and think this is just a fluke accident.

Now let’s get into the story.

As I mentioned earlier, I ended up having problems with my BlackBerry today. It started this morning. Before Coco and I headed out for breakfast and to Verizon to have her phone looked at (hers encountered a liquid spill on Saturday), I decided to finally download the navigation update Sprint has been informing me of. After the update downloaded it wanted to reboot to install, which is normal. After the reboot I got an error that said “App error 200″ and prompted me to retry. Retry simply reboots the phone again. It kept failing. After several attempts to turn off the phone, turn back on, pull the battery out, and so forth, it got to the point where it wouldn’t even turn off. Now I was without a phone. This is almost a matter of life or death.

I dropped it off at Sprint and they said it would be two hours so I went off with Coco to Verizon and to get her rental car. It had been a couple hours by the time this was finished so I headed back to Sprint. As they are bringing out the bin with my phone in it, I notice a new phone box. I also notice my phone with the same white error screen being displayed.

I couldn’t help but laugh. That’s one f’ed up navigation install. I asked the representative what happened. She said that they weren’t unable to fix the error message so they have to give me a new phone. We were both giggling at the fact that this happened over an app install, and one that was a sprint app at that.

I lost all my pics, including my wallpapers and my ones from All-Star Weekend. I also lost my ringtones. However, I have updated software and firmware on my new phone so that is definitely a bonus. I didn’t have to install Google Maps myself and now I have a 2nd navigation app if needed. I was able to install most of my apps I had before by the time I got home. I’ve changed most of the settings and have downloaded new wallpaper. The only thing I have left is custom ringtones and I’m sure that will happen in time.

I’m glad I have my phone back. I also find this whole incident incredibly ridiculous.

Well tonight is my last night at home for quite a few days (close to a week). I am currently working on running the dishwasher, doing laundry, and updating my phone plan to an international one. I might not be awake enough to pack tonight but I will be in a great position to crash early tonight and pack tomorrow morning.

I am headed to Vancouver for Interaction 09 tomorrow morning and will be there until Monday evening. I am so excited for not only my first trip to Vancouver and my first professional conference, but also to meet so many IxD colleagues I have connected with via Twitter, mailing lists and other outlets. I will be attending some fantastic workshops and hearing some fantastic speakers.

I am going to be disabling my incoming and outgoing text messages while I’m there to try and curve the cost of international calling, but those will be back on sometime next week. I am also going to attempt to limit data usage on my BlackBerry so twitter and email access will be whenever I am able to use wireless on my laptop.

Tomorrow I will be trading in my sandals and tank tops for hats, scarves, and boots. I’ll see my PHX peeps later on, and I’ll see my IxD crazies tomorrow!!!

Tonight I headed to the Yucca Tap Room for some rockaroke (finally). Rockaroke is karaoke but without that horrid music that sounds like an f’ed up midi file mixed with an accordion. Rockaroke uses a band and you are the vocalist.

I am getting over a slight cough, but still wanted to take a stab at it. We all know I rarely pass up an offer to get on stage and perform.

I decided to go with 4 Non Blonde’s What’s Up and Kayla decided to record it with my Crackberry. The quality obviously is sub-par, but I’m gonna upload it anyway because I kicked ass (even though I messed up the end slightly).

So here it is. Share it.. especially in Phoenix. Let’s find me a band. Until then you can find me at Yucca every Thursday!

Thursday night we received notification that our complex’s clubhouse, pool, and exercise room were ready for their debut. Yesterday from 4-6 in the evening they were holding a wine and cheese party in the clubhouse to hand out keys and celebrate. I figured I had nothing else to do and I did want my key so I headed on over around 4:30 after work. I sat down at the bar, started to have some wine and soon ended up in conversation with a few other women in the complex and one of their husbands.

I also ended up in a debate about Wal-Mart with one of the employees boyfriends and another resident as well. And no, it was not due to the amount of wine I had, I really just cannot stand Wal-Mart. So much so, that I won’t even link to them as I speak their horrid name.

We easily cleaned off the few bottles of wine there, and I discovered a red that I actually don’t mind. It was Layer Cake Malbec. Mmmm. Not that bad. They had a sparkling white, but it was a brut and not that exciting but still not horrible. I got a giggle out of everyone staring oddly at the cheeses with “odd colored rines.”

At 6 when they kicked us out because office hours were over, we all decided we were not done hanging out. Elisa and Brittany and I headed out in my car for some drinks while Kayla walked her dog. While in the fruit section for an orange, we discovered that there are actually red Bartlett pears. Did anyone else know this? I have an interesting photo of Elisa showcasing the pears, but I’ll post just the pears instead.

We all met up at my house along with Elisa’s husband and ordered pizza from Barros (mmmm) and played RB2 and had some drinks. It was so much fun that we all decided to have a chili party next Friday. Kayla and I will be making chili, and there will be some desserts and drinks (yummy).

The best part I think is when we all exchanged phone numbers and emails on napkins when we all had our blackBerrys sitting out well within reach.

I found balance today by finding some potential new friends. I also had the courage to go do something by myself, which might be hard to believe for people, but I really do have a hard time doing that in a social setting.