Shut Down

They're here. The internet people. 



I started my Shut Down experiment yesterday. You see, I don't sit online all day, but my computer stays booted with my internet pages open all day. I usually keep several tabs open: weather, blogger, google calendar, yahoo inbox, and Facebook. The Facebook tab is usually on my screen when I walk away to do other things, so every time I pass by, I see notifications. I will usually stop and check them, responding when applicable. Then I'm off. It takes only a minute. BUT. If I am doing this minute fifty times a day, then Good Lord, I have wasted an hour on Facebook. This doesn't count surfing the web, reading blogs, blogging, uploading pics, editing pics, posting pics, reading emails & responding, internet shopping, etc. "Jesus God!" ~ Win Berry


I do a lot all day, and not on the internet. But somehow I feel that the internet is still distracting me from my Life. Sneaky, Sneaky. And only if the computer is booted and online. It's like something is speaking to me, luring me in, no matter where I am in the house. It seems easier to resist when I am away and have no access, so I am fairly certain that for me, having the computer booted and online in my house while I am there, attempting to lead a beautiful and peaceful life, is a Psychic Vampire, draining on my "energy", keeping a lot of potential of "wonderful" out of my grasp. 

After coffee time yesterday, I checked my Calendar, blogged a little, Facebooked, and Shut Down. The boys and I cuddled on the couch by the fire. I knitted, and we all watched a couple of episodes of Jim Henson's The Storyteller (which, by the way, was just wonderful!) on Netflix. I did laundry. I did my normal cleaning and cooking and making snacks. I checked the yard for birds periodically. I talked to the cats and the dogs.

I checked out the freezer to get an idea for dinner, and came up with two pounds of grass fed ground beef. Meatloaf! I booted computer, googled recipes for home made meatloaf, chose one, printed it out, and Shut Down. Good job.

Sam watched Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood with me while Josiah sat by the fire and played his DS. I had forgotten how awesome that movie was, plus it strikes a chord with me personally. I "dropped my basket" a while back as well. In a different way, but it was certainly profound. Sam was very amused when the Mom left and got a hotel room. I left and got an apartment, and took the kiddos with me.

I made home-made Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip, and we dug in.

Dad came home from work, then left again for band practice. The boys and I watched Poltergeist on Netflix. I forgot how awesome it was. It scared the shit out of the boys. We had a lot of fun for about an hour after that with me walking around the house doing various chores with the boys glued to my side and rear. Every once in a while I would scream and run away from them, them screaming and running after me, nearly ending up my ass because they couldn't get close enough to Mom, fast enough. I believe that the Universe was sending me an affirmation of my Shut Down theory. Interestingly enough, the little "They're Here" girl looks JUST LIKE ME when I was five. I immediately made the connection between the Poltergeist in the television and the Poltergeist in my computer screen. Sucking me in. It will eventually take me completely, then suck my entire "Home" down into the ground.
Or it could have simply been an affirmation that I was cute enough to be in a movie at the age of five, but somehow this little bitch got in on it instead.

(As soon as Mike got home, the boys immediately  requested confirmation from him that our house was NOT built on a graveyard....)

I never booted my computer back up, all evening. It was nice.

I have to say that this is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I can't WAIT to Shut Down today.

If Poltergeist persists despite the Shut Down, I will not hesitate to push laptop out front door.