Retreat from Social Media – Day 2

Well, I’m significantly behind on the writing front.

I spent early Friday evening preparing a desk area. I have my dad’s old entertainment center sitting in my room, and have since we moved into the house in 2016. It’s had a variety of uses since we moved here, and more recently actually found a TV on it like it’s supposed to. It’s absolutely massive, and takes up a whole wall of the room. This limits the options for where I can have furniture in the room, and adding furniture (like a desk) is definitely out of the question. I do also have Dad’s old secretary desk, but that won’t really work for a space to write, either. I’ve debated making an office space in the basement, as well. I’ve even half-assed attempted it. The space down there is cold though – figuratively and literally. I would need to pick a section to finish, and that’s just not my area of expertise. One afternoon a couple weeks ago I got the bright idea to take dad’s massive entertainment stand and tear it down and make a nice desk out of it. Of course this is something else I personally don’t have the knowledge to do, so I called Sophia to run the idea by her to see if it was something maybe her husband could do for me. I know a couple other people that could do it as well, but everyone is so busy. . . I knew it wasn’t something that was going to happen in the near future.

As I sat here Friday afternoon, on my bedroom floor as I have been for weeks, I looked up at the entertainment stand. . . and realized that the spot made for a TV is actually a pretty suitable height and size for my laptop to fit, and for me to pull a chair up to so I can get off the floor.

So, I moved the TV to the dresser, rearranged a few things on the entertainment stand, and made my desk area. I stole a chair from the kitchen, and boom – desk area. I ordered a few things from Amazon (including a office chair) to make it a more comfortable area, and placed some neat little lights Grandma had found above the work space so it’s a slightly more lit up.

I completed that, dinner, watering of the gardens, and worked on my quote post that evening. And then my Chaser came in requesting a movie night. So, instead of finishing the quote post for Friday, I curled up with my little one to watch Detective Pikachu. The movie didn’t end until after midnight, and my brain was too tired to finish the post. I figured I could finish it in the morning, and went to bed.

Only to wake up at 9am. And I had told Chase we could go out to the campground for the holiday and I had a grocery order to pick up and Matt to take to his friends before we left. . .

I was thoroughly annoyed. I wanted to stay home and work on my art, instead of rushing around to get ready. Multiple times as I readied us for our trip to the campground, I encountered things that were annoying – Probably more because of my mood than any other reason – and kept telling myself I just wasn’t going to go. But my Chaser wanted to go. So I sucked up my annoyance. I packed a bag with swimming gear, and things for him to do. I picked up the groceries and put them away. I dropped Matt off at his friends house. And we made the drive out there.

Finally there, I was met with good food, good friends, and a nice cold Angry Orchard with a shot of fireball in it. I’m not big on fireball, but it was a nice addition to the Angry Orchard. I took Chase around the campground on a scavenger hunt, looking for bears with letters on them to try and figure out a word scramble for a prize. It was hotter than hell though, and unable to figure out the scrambled letters we ended up in swimsuits, in the pond.

A couple years ago someone came up with the idea to take a folding chair and sitting it a few feet out from the beach area. It’s one of the most redneck things I’ve seen – a group of people in folding chairs in the water – but it enables one to sit there partially submerged in water. So that’s what we did this time. Chase ran around between the beach and the water, building a sandcastle and floating in the water. I sat talking with friends, laughing and joking. And ultimately I was glad that I had ignored my annoyance and made the trip. The sun was hot and the water cool. My little one was happily playing in the sun. I felt the anxiousness leave me that had plagued me earlier that day.

And I was able to leave my phone up on the golf cart parked in the shade, without worrying about social media obligations. I did occasionally check it to make sure that no one was trying to get a hold of me for whatever reason, but each time only found text updates from Matthew, who was going to his friends family gathering for the holiday.

I again found relief in the more simplistic. In the more genuine interactions. Water and sun and friends.

We didn’t make it home until after nine in the evening, with Matthew following shortly after. We sat on the back deck, watching the firework show put on by our neighbors. Everyone around us seemed to have a decent set of fireworks. Matt stood leaning on the banister of the stairs, seemingly unimpressed by the show. Chase sat on the chair across from me, exclaiming over the noise and colors. Matthew was too cool to show enthusiasm, but he still stood there. That was good enough for me.

I was too exhausted to power up my laptop and work, though. My quote post from Friday is in need of some major editing and thought to make the flow smoother. I needed to write the social media post for the day. I had another quote post to write for yesterday. . . but instead I crawled into bed, with my alarm set for 630am.

In a short while I will need to go into work to work my obligatory first Sunday of the month four hour shift. I need to hit the bank and pharmacy afterwards. But this afternoon I’ll be able to play catch up on my writing. Because now I have to finish Friday’s quote post and completely write Saturday and Sundays, as well as Day 3 in the social media series. I have to think about if I’m going to rejoin the social media world. I do also help run the catering page for my friends and they jokingly gave me a hard time about logging off – “how’s our author going to quit social media??” I laughed at the joking, but I do understand, as well. I’m sure that there’s a way to find a happy medium.

What I’ve discovered through these last couple days though, is this – I have plenty to occupy my time without including social media. And I appreciate the abscence. I grew up in a time without social media, and it’s rather easy to revert back to that.

I’ll wish you all a happy Sunday for now. I’ll talk more later.