Florida Chick Unplugged

I've been watching football all day, and Disney, and football...not necessarily in that order. See, today I decided that I would make the effort to stay away from all electronics...once I realized that that would include the coffeepot, however, I decided to lower my expectations and just stay away from the T.V. and the computer. Of course, my decision to turn off the T.V. didn't go over well with my family...so it turned out that instead of not having the televieion on, I had it tuned to channels that I wasn't interested in...no Lifetime, no Hallmark, no Food Network... it was incredibly difficult to drink my coffee this morning without watching Giada make another great Italian dessert with Hazelnut and Nutella.

Turning off the computer wasn't so bad, I mean, after my first initial obsessive moments when I was overwhelmed by the desire to check my facebook account (I hate to have to wait to check everyone's status updates) I was fine. I did have to break my technology fast for one moment this afternoon after I had a really nice girl come to my door and try to sell me a fabulous but expensive cleaner. She was very sweet and I invited her in to try it out on my floors and my shower doors, then I gave her a Gatorade and sent her on her way...

I don't know how much each of you know about South Florida, but apparently it's not smart to invite strangers into your house. Chris freaked out and mentioned it to our neighbors who mentioned the strange van that had been driving around our neighborhood and who the police had been checking up on to make sure they weren't casing the neighborhood. Anyway, I ended up on the internet checking the validity of the cleaning company...and then when I didn't find it - looking up the number for the police station to let them know that there were people going door-to-door possibly checking things out...seriously, this just does not happen in West Michigan. Back home, I probably would have given her the Gatorade and then invited her in for dinner and movie.

In the end, staying away from the T.V. really didn't benefit me as much as I had hoped, and keeping away from the computer was more noble in theory than in action...I suppose if you're counting down the hours until you can check for your latest wall post, it's probably a bigger problem than what one afternoon without the internet can solve. All in all, it was a challenge that worked out well...but next time I'm going to fast from something easier...like breathing.