Help!

I need to find a new phone. My contract is being renewed with in the next month (if I get around to it) but I am in desperate need of a new phone as my second Razor is getting ready to die...Have I ever mentioned how much I hate that thing?

So I have a few choices...and seriously I've been blown away by all the new technology. Some things that are important:

• NOT GOING TO FALL APART (need I say more?)
• Can put in my front pocket without it dialing EVERYBODY
• Can handle being dropped every now and then?
• User friendly ( I just don't have time to get too complicated. If it has lots of features, but is still easy to use...that's fine)
• If I sit on it (not jump on it)...it won't quite working
• Has good service (why do some models work better than others?)

Some things I find cool but know nothing about, therefore don't know if it's worth my while (and no, I cannot get to a store to look. Our stores pretty much order everything in anyway)

• Touch screen (worth it or a hassel?)
• PDA - Useful? Does it cost more for service? If I don't get the service is it just another phone?
• PDA - Planner capabilities...easy to use?
• Blackberry - Yes, no? Heard both great and horrid things...

I really don't want to pay more per month for a phone. Right now I just have a basic plan since I almost never talk on it, but if internet is only $5/month that doesn't exactly break the bank. I use my calander on my phone regularly, so is planner capabilities THAT much more fantastic?

Cost of phone doesn't play into it so much as I'm on a school plan and get a wicked discount (namely free). What's a good phone that won't die either? All I know is I haven't been happy with a Motorola.

So any comments are appreciated and vote to the RIGHT! If you have more than one choice please include all your choices! Thanks all!

What I've seen and am interested:

Verizon Wireless Blitz: Slides up to a keyboard, plus is touch screen. About as large as a post-it-note pad. Kinda neat.

Samsung Glyde -Touch screen only. No keyboard...but I don't really text much anyway. Sort of looks user friendly.

LG Voyager - Touch screen PDA

LG Dare - thought it looked cool

Palm Smartphone

Blackberry Pearl

Casio Boulder - made tough for the military. Thought it looked cool. Flip phone...so need to worry about locking key pads. If PDA's and touch screens aren't that big of a deal this is what I'm going with

My Gals

I'm not sure how to title this post...so I'll wait until I finish it up. So my last post was titled "Life and Loss"...and here's the loss. This has taken me awhile to try and put together. Shane's grandfather passed, my aunt unexpectedly died and I feel I should get home but I literally can't and I feel so lost because of it...like I don't belong anywhere anymore. Things aren't really so hot here on the homefront either and that's something I don't even know how to begin to explain. And there has been some devastating conditions to just make things worse...

I lost both Sedona and Sabrina this summer. I may want a simple life and stay home, cook, raise children and horses, but it isn't happening...so my animals are like my kids. They are my kids.

I can't explain it all. With Sabrina it was a really hard choice after finding what must have been a tumor in her neck. What I don't feel is right it that by now I should have had the means to do whatever it was to make things right with her...She was the first horse that was ever mine...just mine and nobody else's. I let her down by being a broke bum due to past decisions. Everyone said that putting her down was the right thing due to how much weight she was losing, but I should have been able to make it right.

Sedona's just gone. And that's something I still can't even fathom...It's like none of this happened as I've been so busy. On top of everything else that has been happening I just don't know why I can't catch a break...ever.

Life and Loss

Sorry it's been so long. Between the 12 hour days, fire details and the Internet going down due to surges I just haven't had the energy or the heart to sit and write. It's been an incredibly fast summer and I'm dreading starting school again next week as I just haven't had a chance to breath since we got out. Whereas the whole summer wasn't a loss: I love the new office I'm working out of and the foresters and fire crews I work with rock, but fire didn't pan out like it should have money-wise and on the homefront? Well, let's just say there's been a lot of loss since the death of Shane's grandfather and I just can't go into it right now...

As said, my crews rock. I had some engine detail, local stuff and was dispatched to CO fire since we already had a crew in CA (I couldn't go with them...they yanked us around, I had doctor's appointments, was over the 4th of July and I had to make a judgement call...unfortunately I missed the boat). What was bad about the situation was that due to Nationwide overdispatching and holding crews on reserve my crew was shorted time and that ended up working out to be about a $4,000 difference for me. Sort of a big deal, especially as I was still working almost just as many hours....just not with Hazard pay and overtime added together.

Also...let me explain how much Human Resource Departments SUCK!!! Forest Circus (I mean Service) employees are payed out of Albequerque (starting this year). I never had ONE paycheck all summer that was not messed up in some way. First I wasn't payed for the first 6 weeks because my info, that they's had for 6 months, STILL hadn't been entered into the system. Coincidentally that just messed up everything else all summer. Caused mucho stress for me and every time I talked to an HR person? Right...not their fault. I finally told them what wasn't realistic (after being told it wasn't realistic to solve the problem in one day) was that I hadn't had one pay check correct as of yet. NOT REALISTIC...NOR ACCEPTABLE! AHHHHHHHH!

One thing that was cool about the whole summer: I was able to pack into the wilderness areas for work with my own horses. These are areas that no motorized vehicles are allowed in, so either you have to carry everything yourself, or pack in on animals. It was a very neat experience.

I think I've commented before about having purchased a new horse late last spring? Charlie? Well I finished my payments on him and sent in his papers. He is a wonderful horse and I took him up to the mountains with my Mustang, Maggie. Both did wonderful despite some precarious trail situations. I also have another new addition to the household: Wrigley. Wrigley is a 9 week old, smooth-coat, chocolate dappled mini - daschund. He is my stud dog as he is well bred, carries the traits for dapple, piebald, chocolate and tan, isabella (light blue coloring) and dilute, as well as long-hair. Quite a package in about 8 oz of energy right now! He is very tiny, but thinks he's huge! and has taken on both Maverick and Dixie now...though they think he's a joke.

I tried to download some pics, but for some reason they wouldn't take so I just made a quick slide show of the events I enjoyed this summer.