A Week Unplugged.

Monday.

Oh, hm...unplugged.  Well, this was inspired by my desire to spend less time texting and more time actually living my life.  I figured this week would be perfect because I have fun things planned during the days and evenings pretty much all week, so this will give me the opportunity to actually be present with people.  I'm dragging Amber along with me because there's safety in having someone else be tortured with you.

Unplugged means phone on silent, in my purse, when I'm with other people.  It means finally calling back the people I need to actually speak too.  It means facetime with close friends.  It means thoughtfully written cards instead of snarky lunch time twitter mentions.  It means a little more depth and a little more wisely spent time.

Tuesday.

After starting the hair-brained scheme to be more present in life I made a list of 10 people I needed to have conversations with this week.  I'm going to call them.  Yes, all 10 of them.  Yes, me, who loathes the phone. I loathe the phone but I love these 10 people and so I am going to call them.  I'm mostly convincing myself here.

I called my grandpa on my lunch break yesterday.  He just went to Washington DC with a group of 35 vets of WW2 to see the new memorial they put in there.  He had called me a few weeks back when Tampa was having terrible storms and so I thought, I should call him and ask about his trip!  He was going to see this memorial, where I was in May of this year during my trip...

I could tell it meant the world to him that I remembered and called back for a chat about something we've both been part of this year.  My grandpa is an incredible man of God and hearing his perspective on the memorial that recognize and honors his sacrifice and the lives of many of his friends that were lost in honor of our freedom was touching.  I may have been on to something with this unplugged week.

I spent last night at Yogurtology and Bath & Body works with Nichole and Kari, so that made it easy to want to put away the phone (other than needing to read them something from the internet) and just enjoy being with them.  Nichole and I exchanged books for the book swap, and Kari and I got to share our love of  wall flowers and scented lotions.  It was a surprisingly perfect Monday night, sans texting (with scheduling exceptions, naturally...).  Maybe I really can do this!

Wednesday.


Tuesday made for an easy day to go without texting.  I spent my lunch break with Jess and Delaney, catching up about life.  Jess is one of my longest standing friends and I adore her.  I realized and pointed out last week that she is the person I tell things I wouldn't tell any of my other close friend, if that makes sense?  She's my secret keeper.

(this is Delaney, Jess's beautiful niece...well one of them!)

Tuesday night after work I got to have fro yo with Thomas to celebrate the end of his clinicals!  He is almost a murse (male nurse).  If he reads this he will probably hate me for saying that almost as much as my neighbor hates me every time I introduce him as my murse neighbor.

Wednesday was equally fabulous has I got to have lunch with my friend Preston who recently took a job at a building right by my house/work (I work and live about 2 miles apart so it's the same area).  We met at the mall food court and talked money and business plans because, well, he's my only friend who's as interested in that stuff as I am, I think.

Wednesday night I used my time between jobs to have an hour long chat with my bestie who moved to Austin, TX recently, Auburn. It was so good to hear her voice I literally cried a little bit.  And then spent the rest of the time talking like we would have over fro yo before she left.  It was perfect and much needed.  And followed that up with a call to my friend Jon, in Indy, who is literally one of my most perfectly timed friendships. I'm not sure I could love him anymore than I do...he is truly an amazing friend and I'm grateful for him.  Maybe I'm really onto something with this text-less-talk-more thing I'm working this week.

Thursday.

Whew, Thursday was a bit of a blur to be honest.  I probably texted a little more than I should of but I was literally on the go from 8am-10pm without stop.  I did call my best friend on my way into work (when I also drove through sonic and got a diet coke, of course).  I had lunch with the Crimellas - Jess, Noah, and Emmie, which was awesome.  Love them.

I had a meeting after work, then fro yo with Bryn (I love every second I get with her, she's so special to me), and then drove around and looks at apartments with a friend (not for me, I'm staying put).  I've become semi-obsessed with real estate over the years and since I'm not selling my place, buying a second, or probably ever renting again - I live vicariously through bossing my friends around about what they should by, where they should rent, and helping them get good deals.

Thursday was also the start of Amber, Candy, and I's spending project.  We're tracking every dollar we spend for a week.  Mildly terrifying.  But I think it'll be good.  Maybe.  Or depressing. We'll see.  Depending on how ashamed I am, I may post about this later.

Friday.

I have a surprisingly small amount to say about Friday for once.  It was busy, it went quickly, and I didn't have many chances to text anyway so it wasn't a bad day for that.  The spending project is taking more of my attention than not texting.  Managed to get a few of my phone calls made.  I really used my time in the car wisely this week (unless you subscribe to the camp of not talking while driving, in which case I failed in your book).  I got to catch up with a huge list of friends I'd been meaning to call....and I'm inspired to hit up a few more in the next few days before I head off to Myrtle Beach.

I'm ending this experiment, officially today, but I actually think it's more of a beginning for me.  I have a few days left before I head on a 4 day get-a-way and I plan to spend very little of that time text, or really being on my phone at all.  I guess if my family read this blog, which they don't, they'd hold me accountable.  Since they don't I guess you all can.  

The best takeaways from this week have been - conversations are better than text messages, any day.  I still don't love the phone but I will say this week went a long way in encouraging me to use it more often.  It doesn't take a ton of effort to make people feel special and involved in your life.  I'm realizing that more and more.  I don't want to be a slacker on the small things that make up the bigger picture of my relationships.  And I should also confess, the world didn't stop turning while I was texting absent.  So I guess that's good news, it really doesn't revolve around me and my witty texting banter.

Love,
B