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.
