Sometimes you think you know how a day or evening is going to go. - TopicsExpress

Sometimes you think you know how a day or evening is going to go. You plan things, to whatever degree, in your mind and you assume that all will go as planned. As I learned last night, plans have a way of being broken. And, sometimes, broken plans turn into meaningful moments. Last night, I followed my usual routine of leaving work at a “normal” time, driving the 20-ish minutes home and making whatever stops were needed along the way. With my (almost) 5 year old on my heels, I walked through the front door to our house. We were instantly greeted by our kittens, Scarlet and Gray, and then made our way into the living room. As we ate our pizza, I decided to check Facebook. I stared at the white page on my phone. Why wasn’t it loading? The circular-star-thing was dancing in its little dance but the News Feed was not populating. Frustrated, I closed the app and tried to check my email. After all, I am so addicted to internet-based stimulation that it is essential that I scroll through something while lounging on my couch, stuffing my face with pizza. I gazed at my phone and observed the little round blob that turned red, yellow, green and blue as it tried with all of its might to load my emails. I knew in my mind that there was absolutely no email that I wanted to read, but I felt compelled to skim through something. “Fine”, I thought as I turned off my phone, “I will use my laptop.” Dragging my laptop onto my legs, I stuffed the rest of my piece of pizza into my mouth. I logged in and was met with an error message. “WHAT THE HECK!? WHY IS NOTHING WORKING???” I said with my mind’s voice (in all honesty, I likely did not use the word ‘heck’). I made some type of “Uggghhh” sound, turned the router off and then back on, saw that helped in no way and punched my phone back to life. I know not to bother my fiancé when he is away with the army… but this constituted an emergency. “Hello??” He said, clearly wondering why I was calling him when I knew he was busy. “Babe! The internet won’t work! I have tried EVERYTHING! What do I do!?” I dramatically exclaimed. “Honey… Ummmm… I don’t know what to tell you. I am hours away. I can’t fix it.” … And that is when it hit me how absolutely ridiculous I sounded. I had called my significant other, who was doing his job for the United States Military, and bothered him because I could not connect to the internet. Un-flipping-believable. For a brief moment, I thought about calling my internet provider. But, as I picked up my phone in order to search for the customer service number, I realized that was not going to happen… for obvious reasons. And, apparently using the phonebooks that have been dropped off on my doorstep over the years as kindling for bonfires wasn’t all that great of an idea. Since I live approximately .78 miles from the middle of nowhere, if I do not have internet connection, my phone cannot really function. I was forced to stop trying to get my social media fix. Here is what happened: 1- I found out that I really can sit through TV commercials without messing with my phone. The first few were tough but I was able to endure. In learning this, I also was able to fully pay attention to my DVR-ed TV show much more intently than I usually do and discovered that I have great taste in TV. 2- I learned that phones charge a lot faster when you’re not messing with them. It was amazing. 3- When I got to work this morning, I learned that there was neither a solar flare nor an apocalyptic event that blew up the internet, even though my mind truly did go there when I was having my semi-panic attack last night. 4- When my phone attached itself to Wi-Fi this morning, I received notice of (literally) 18 Facebook messages and notifications, 27 emails (mostly spam or junk), and 3 app updates. I somehow survived the night even though I didn’t receive them when I wanted to. 5- To reach for my phone is now an automatic kind of reflex. It is as though my mind goes, “I am bored. Must check social media. Hand, reach for phone” or “Phone has not vibrated in more than 2.3 minutes. Must check to be sure that the world is not ending. Hand, scroll through Facebook. Be sure that people are still announcing their every move.” … and I don’ t like that I have morphed into this person. It is time for a change. Although I did not intend to see this the way that I have, my eyes have been opened. Social media takes up too much of my time… and I need to limit it. While saying that, let it be known that the irony of it all is not lost with me. I am well aware that I am announcing my anti-social-media-awareness on social media. I didn’t say I was quitting cold turkey. I said I am limiting it. After all, if I totally quit, how would I ever know who is on vacation, who is dating who and what so-and-so had for dinner?