This past weekend the boys and I met a friend and her daughter in Wisconsin Dells. This was our first trip of any sort by ourselves. To say I was nervous is an understatement. To say I was scared of something going haywire with the car and being stuck on the side of the road, another understatement though this time underlined a couple of times. To say I was happy with making the effort for a new friendship, yes definitely.
I am definitely glad we made the trip. I wished it could have been for a bit longer, knowing now how much fun Max had at the waterpark. The one thing I didn’t do hardly any of was social media. No Facebook. No Instagram. No surfing the net on my phone. No calling friends, or texting. I just unplugged and enjoyed the moment. And it was great.
This has been heavy on my mind lately, social media and the internet and how our lives, if we let them, can get so wrapped up in them and we forget what its like to live. My camera is broken and I’ve been relying on my phone’s camera to capture life’s moments as I don’t want to miss them. I go back and forth with do I want another gadget to carry around, seeing my phone is very well capable of taking decent photos and I can certainly save on the expense of repairing/purchasing new or do I fix it and release my phone from this responsibility, as the camera was around first.
I recently read a few other people’s blogs about their relationships with their phones, social media and the internet. Many people are ditching the smart phones and going back to the ‘dial and text only’ phones. If I can break away from the convenience of the internet on my phone (and Netflix for Max!) then maybe I too with my next upgrade will demote my phone. This is still to be decided, but when I see many people at lunch, dinner, walking through the stores or just by people on the street looking at their phone avoiding human contact it makes me sad.
This weekend, I pulled out my phone only a handful of times to figure out a tip, take pictures of Max all geared up for the pool and our lunch. (I am not even going to get into the phone use and driving. We all know its dangerous and we shouldn’t do it.)
Another big eye opener this weekend was my pace of life. I have the typical angry city person attitude, and my friend is a very moderate enjoy life pace. I am very envious of this pace. I felt like a flash going by at all times and she was Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music – stopping and having fun. I thought about this the entire way home. I don’t like this ‘fastness’. I don’t like this angriness. I don’t like feeling like life is passing me by and I cant stop it or catch up to find a way to enjoy it.
All I want is for my boys to have a great childhood and life and so when they get older they can look back and think, ‘that was great!’ and smile about it. I don’t want them to worry about all the nastiness in the world today. I just want them to be kids. Happy kids. And so far, though I am in angry-city-person mode they are happy. I cant wait to see what they will be when I’m not angry-city-person.
If you notice I am not around much its because I am living life and enjoying my boys, family and friends. I'll still be here as I want to keep this memory journal going, but I'd imagine the internet will find someone better for them.
