Today's latte was hot and spicy. Typical. That damn drink was too awesome for its own good and I drank it as punishment.I wrote a few weeks ago that I was reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I hadn't gotten very far when I wrote that and I put it down shortly afterwards and haven't picked it up since. I often pick up different books and read a bit of them and then put them down for weeks, sometimes months at a time. Hence why I sometimes have two or three books on the go. I always finish books that I've started with the exception of Moby Dick and A Tale of Two Cities. However, this habit of picking up a book and then leaving it for weeks at a time only developed in the past few years as my life got more and more hectic. I was always a voracious reader, I would consume books in one or two days and then start another right away. I miss spending the afternoon reading away lazily in the sun, but I'm always so distracted with everything that I actually find it hard to sit still for long periods of time. One of those distractions is my evil, evil phone.
I love my phone, her name is Bridgett IX. Someone described her the other day as my lifeline and I didn't entirely like that. Fact is, I spend far too much time on my phone when it's not actually doing anything like delivering a message to me. Heaven forbid I don't see a message the minute it comes in. Heaven forbid I don't reply IMMEDIATELY. If I don't, I might end a friendship forever. The problem is when there are no messages, I'm still on the damn thing looking up stuff on the internet or wasting time on Facebook. I used to play Minion Rush for hours every day, sitting on the couch like a lump, although I rarely play games on my phone anymore. There have been evenings where I suddenly realize I've spent three hours on my phone, either messaging people, tweeting, Facebooking or just looking up general information. How does that happen? It actually makes me sick how much time I've spent staring at that tiny, beautiful screen.
When I was in Germany in 2011 for a six week visit after Anna was born, I didn't have data on my phone and we didn't have wifi in our apartment. I kept wanting to look stuff up on my phone and couldn't. I actually started a list of random questions that I would research when I got home because I was so sick of not getting answers to every question that popped into my head during the course of our visit. Info at our fingertips is amazing, but it's also addictive. Just FYI, one of the questions was, "Who invented Nutella?" Riveting, important stuff, people!
So I've turned over a new leaf and I'm getting my mojo back. When I'm home and I know my kids are safe with me (as opposed to being at school and possibly needing me by phone), I put my phone in my purse for the evening and I only check it at the end of the night for messages I may need to reply to before I go to bed. It's been five days and I started and finished The Glass Castle and read 400 pages of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I'm learning that while I truly appreciate the convenience of modern technology, I need to let go of this constant need to be connected to everyone and everything 24/7.
In all honestly, I feel a little twitchy, like I'm recovering from an addiction. The best way to describe it is that I feel like I'm always forgetting something, but in actual fact, I just haven't checked my phone in four hours.
Words and phrases from Dawson's Creek today:
"pontificating"
"Maybe not within the confines of the judicial system"
"I'm too tired to philosophize"
"Before this adolescent growth process is over"
"You are such a sphincter"
"I've pretty much bastardized the evening"
"It's celluloid propaganda"
Holy hell, I feel like I'm getting smarter just watching this show.
-Megs
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