I Unplugged for 10 Days: Part 6

 

View from John's front porch [his feet, not mine].

I Unplugged for 10 Days:  Part 6

Below is an account of my attempt to unplug completely from email and the internet for 10 days while on a stay-cation.  For those of you who haven’t heard the term, a stay-cation is a local vacation.

Day 4 – Monday, April 25

I am meeting my friend Kelly for dinner tonight at Busboys & Poets in Shirlington.  [By the way, this is a very green, veggie/vegan-friendly restaurant, so check them out!].  Since I haven’t been to this location before, I want to be sure I know how to get there, so I reluctantly get on the Internet for directions.  Since I’m already online and have blown the experiment yet again, after I get the directions, I quickly check out the site for Charlie Palmer Steak on Capitol Hill because I’m meeting Lisa DeMare, their Social Catering Sales Manager, for lunch.  [Yes, I’m officially on vacation but lunch with Lisa is fun and not work for me!]  I know where the restaurant is, but I figure I’ll read more about it.  [By the way, they had some really good vegetarian options available for me to eat, so don’t let the word “steak” in the name scare you away.  I would definitely go back again].

Late this afternoon, I get a call on my mobile from No Name Vegetarian Caterer and they inform me they can’t caterer the gathering on Friday.  Argh!  That night, I get back on the web site for Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats and plan out a menu, run it by my boyfriend John and plan to email the owner in the morning.  There goes the experiment yet again…

Total time on the internet today:  About 20 minutes. 

Day 5 – Tuesday, April 26

I got on email this morning.  It is the first time I’ve been on since Friday morning. I went a whole 4 days without getting on email, but I don’t consider this too huge of an accomplishment since 2 of those days were over the weekend.   I didn’t want to send an email, but I figured it was the easiest way to contact Doron Peterson, owner of Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats [and grand prize winner of Cupcake Wars on the Food Channel by the way] about the gathering on Friday.  Despite the fact that the web site CLEARLY stated I could call the main number to place my order, I email the order to Doron since I know her.  I wasn’t looking for a discount.  I just wanted her to know that I was using her company for catering. 

So I send the email and keep checking email to see if she had responded to it.  I HATE that I got on email!  I try REALLY HARD to not look at emails anybody else sent me.  I look a bit at WHO emailed me, but I don’t open any emails.  Okay, maybe one.  So I am forced to keep looking at email to see if Doron responds, but she never does.  Long story short:  I finally speak to her via mobile phone late in the afternoon.  We have a lovely chat and she says, “Just call the main number.”  So I really didn’t need to get on email at all.  Argh!  I kick myself for ruining the experiment YET AGAIN but vow NEVER TO LOOK AT EMAIL ANYMORE DURING MY STAY-CATION!!

Next post:  See how I do for the duration of the experiment.