Last Thursday, taking Ariel’s advice, I attempted to go unplugged.
This is usually what I do after work: I get home, boot up my personal laptop and start heating dinner up in the microwave. From there, I usually sit on my living room couch and stare at my laptop for the entire night until I get tired and go to bed - usually chatting via Instant Messenger, checking e-mail and twitter, work on my web projects, surf the web. Somewhere in between that time, dinner is consumed. For a diversion, I play World of Warcraft. By the time I crawl into bed, my shoulders ache and eyes hurt and MY GOD, I live a pathetic existence.
On Thursday, I got home, heated dinner up in the microwave and then realized that I wasn’t going to use the laptop that night. So, out of desperation, I started to clean. You know how crystal meth supposedly makes you suddenly want to clean the house? That was me, making my bed and washing the dishes, not necessarily because I had the energy but because it was there.
What can I say? Boredom is my anti-drug™.
After that, I sat on my couch and read. From a book. Did you know that pages from a book don’t have back-lit screens, so you have to sit next to a bright light? Yeah, I didn’t either. At around ten at night, I got strangely tired. Ten o’clock is a really early time to fall asleep for me - I’m usually up for a couple of extra hours on my laptop. But this time I was noticeably calmer and more relaxed, so any of those suggestions Ariel had on what to do when you were unplugged were quickly shelved for the next time. Write a book? Take a dance class? Eh, I’m sleepy. I’ll just lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling instead.
Oh God, I just re-read the above paragraph. No wonder I’m single.
You know what? I joke a little bit how “boring” the night was but to be honest I haven’t given myself a chill night in a while. I probably just couldn’t tell the difference, that’s all; you know how hipsters acclimate to conditions at Burning Man, or Swedes have to get used to the thinner air in an attempt to climb Mt. Everest? It’s like I’m trying to do that, except about a thousand times more pathetic. At the end of the night, I wasn’t as anxious and my shoulders did feel a lot better, especially after not being hunched over a laptop. (Like right now, typing out this blog post.) I’ll give it another try next week - maybe I’ll just to figure out what to do about this book I promised I would write years ago. Or I’ll go to bed at 9pm.
