I SURVIVED!
Okay, I survived on 1% of the interwebz. Let's just delve right in, shall we?
I should preface this by saying that I love to plan things, events, parties, etc. I suck at planning out details of my own day-to-day life. That being said, day 1 was a bust from the start. I awoke and curbed my immediate desire to hop online as I always did. Wake up. Stumble out to the couch. Get kids drinks. Open the computer. And live online for about an hour or as long as kids would let me. I resisted that temptation initially. But then I looked at the calendar and noticed the date. Crap. I had to pay the water bill. And since we opted into receiving our bill electronically, I couldn't just write a check and pop it in the mail. Begrudgingly, I logged on. In the midst of bill paying, I then remembered that all this cooking and baking I had planned to fill my days with required recipes--recipes which I had found through Googling and had forgotten to write down. Diversion number two. Thankfully, my day one cheating took all of ten minutes. With that done, I was able to stay offline for the remainder of the day.
Day two came, and I was slightly hopeful. I was expecting an important e-mail. The Hubs, the team player that he is, was kind enough to check my e-mail. No important e-mail today, and I stayed off Webby. Well, day three came and The Hubs wasn't home to live vicariously through. Again, with my lack of planning skills, I had forgotten to map a friend's address for a birthday party that day. My sister cheated for me and texted me directions. Two days of cheating by association. Day four was a complete success with no one at my beck and call. I wasn't perfect thus far, but it was better than expected.
Welcome, day five or the day or toddler mayhem. You know how a certain little someone thwarted my no phone week by plummeting off the trampoline? Well, he thought he needed to thwart my efforts yet again by slipping in the shower at such an angle that a resident comb impaled his upper eye. Blood flowing, I grabbed the little guy, threw on a towel, cleaned it up, and called The Hubs. This is when having an EMT for a husband comes in handy. The phone photo didn't show up too well, and I didn't like his initial response of head to urgent care, so I called the pediatrician. The nurse advised us to head to the ER. I liked that option even less. A half hour had passed, and this flesh wound was still a'flowin'. I could head to the urgent care or ER and wait forever. I could head to the fire station where The Hubs works. Or I could get out the camera, take a picture of the ghastly sight, e-mail it to The Hubs, and get a faster, easier professional opinion. Option #3 it was! After showing the photo around the station, it was determined by the house to take the little bruiser to urgent care. Thankfully, our urgent care has call ahead, so I had to use the good ol' web yet again to get their number. One e-mail and one phone-number. Caving in yet again, but at least this was for a just cause.
The arrival of busy, but calmer day six was more than welcomed. One check of the e-mail because super important e-mail finally came in. The rest of the day was spent visiting relatives, freaking out about money, and cursing my car that is always broken. Finally, day seven emerged much faster than expected. I officially said F-it and gave in to my addiction. I was home alone. There was a pile of work needing to be done with the use of the internet. I was stressed to the core. I needed
Is this a success? My sister says not. In my oppositional manner, I disagree. You see, I'm a (slightly) recovering internet addict. I have been known to have my computer open from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. E-mail checks? Over 100. Refreshing pages? Hundreds of times. My name is Megyn, and I'm an internet addict. See, I've got that first step down. This whole "no internet" step two was severely needed. My good friend ADHD became obsessed with its relationship to Webby. It was a match made in heaven. Constant change available. Constant opportunity to redirect attention. Constant flow of information. Constant updates. There's always something new up Webby's sleeve. And my ADHD brain stared in amazement. As much as my ADHD has helped me, this Webby relationship was not working in my favor. Wise Mind had to step in and order a break up. Obviously, it wasn't a complete cold turkey break up, but reducing my Webby consumption by 99% is pretty damn good for one week of work.
As you can tell, this little experiment wasn't to see if I could live without the internet. It was to see if I could stop that addiction to form a healthier relationship. I think I got that. I spent my time singing randomly made up songs with toddlers, snuggling on the couch giddily watching Greek, baking my ass off for the guys at the station, getting goofy with a petite pup, and just enjoying some tidbits of life that often go ignored.
Tidbits like this gush of lovin'...
Or a gift from a preschooler...
Or beautiful littering of my favorite tree.
Besides a sense of relief that comes from stopping an addiction or compulsion, I came to realize just how heavily I rely on Webby. The internet is basically a one-stop shop for everything I need: a bank, cookbook, friend, school, news source, workplace, radio, map, phone book, doctor, store, photo album, phone, book, and community. With all of that enclosed in my little laptop, it's even more apparent how I was able to spend so much time in such an application. Despite it serving a multifunctional purpose, I realized that the majority of what eats up my time is trying to keep up some semblance of human relationships and life. When I want to avoid my real life, I turn to my virtual life. It seems much better than what's actually going on. So I worked on that this past week--changing my real life to resemble this more "perfect" virtual life. Real, in person relationships were much harder to mold than what I've "created" online. I missed my readers and e-mail/IM pals. But growing those relationships with my kids and husband will surely pay off in greater amounts in the long run. A bloggy pal in Australia is harder to get to in a crisis than The Hubs is. Right now, as hard as it is, real life is trumping Webby. It has to.
But I'm still back. Still using the crutch that the virtual world has to offer (and thankfully so!). Just trying not to rely on it as much. As much as I love you all, some rowdy boys require some attention. Webby, you're on the back burner. And just know, all you amazing readers, that despite me not being around as much, I love you all. I'm still listening/reading. Pinky swear.
Stay tuned for a post on my Grinch-esque Halloween and a No FaceBook recap.
_________________________________________________________________________________
P.S.-- Thanks for all the help on the phone situation! We ended up ditching text messaging. I'm going to miss it, but paying for health insurance (a story for a different day) is trumping my qwerty keyboard.
0 comments:
Post a Comment