I am enrolled in an art journaling/self improvement class called
Your Living Canvas. We just officially started the course last week, but we have been doing 'warm up' journaling and leadership challenges all along. One of the instructors challenged us to live "media free" for a day. The other instructor suggested that we should all try to do May 31st. Okey dokey. I'm up for a challenge. It was mostly scary for me with regards to the radio, Ipod, Kindle, Ipad and TV since those are my addictions. Oops, looking at the list I see that is pretty much everything, isn't it? Sigh.
I woke up around 5:30 and immediately turned on the TV in the bedroom because this is what I do every day. Habits are hard to ignore. I did remember about 15 minutes or so into it and turned off my TV. I had to miss one of the Duggars getting sick, or maybe it was the bit about Kim Zolzniak's side boob, but I will do what needs to be done. Then I went down to the basement to work out and I used the TV and a workout DVD. That was a necessary pass for good health (in my humble opinion), but then I kept watching TV after I was done (as is my habit, again) and while I was stretching. I came to my senses right before my last set of stretches and clicked off the set. Well, still not too bad. Okay, this TV thing is hard to stop, especially considering that I have a TV in every room where I might spend more than 5 minutes of my time. And I'm able to transport a TV into any room in an emergency or on a moment's notice.
It was raining like crazy, so after my second fail, I was able to go up to The Batcave (aka my studio) and work on my journal cover for class right away. I was glad because this is when I usually water the garden and I always use my Ipod because I need to listen to music to drown out the sound of the hose, the birds and my neighbors in case they holler at me. So at least that was one habit I didn't automatically do by accident.
I was really progressing on my art journal cover, but I was definitely having withdrawal symptoms. I am also not so sure that the thoughts that were in my head were at all worth having, but have them I did. All morning. With no interruption. Yay.
I do have to confess here that I answered my cell once. I had forgotten to put it on vibrate and I didn't recognize the number. Since we are in the middle of the bathroom remodel process, I thought maybe it was them calling with some info I needed. But, happily, it was Amanda from my favorite department store letting me know that the shoes I had ordered were in and I could come get them any time. I was glad that I had taken that call since I really wanted those shoes. I can put up pics of them if you want. They are cute. So are the other pair I bought when I went in to get those. But those were on sale, so it's okay. Just don't tell my husband.
The rest of today's agenda was simple, but daunting: clean out and start the painting process of my oldest daughter, Lauren's, bedroom. She is going to be moving back into the area at the end of the summer and I figure it will be easier to do it before she brings all of her stuff and her cat (totally another story) back home. Now, bear in mind that when she graduated from college, she was only here for a couple of days before leaving for her summer job at a Y camp in New Jersey. After that she moved to St. Louis, then California. Last summer I helped her move from California to Maryland (road trip!). In all of that time, she has never had an opportunity to come home and go through all of her important things like, say, the Jello shot holders or beer mugs. I have it all boxed up neatly and labeled, but it is all still there. In great quantities. I mean, there are things from Middle School in boxes. She has some serious purging to do when she gets back here. She already knows.
To help me out with this little project, I enlisted the aid of the neighbor girls. Diann is just home from her Freshman year in college and Hannah is going to be a high school Junior. They are completely capable of actually helping me; or doing all of the work, depending on my mood. I was heading to get the umbrella so that I could go over and get them when the house phone rang. It was Diann wondering when they should come over. Since I am nobody's fool, I said, "Right now." Okay. So I talked on the phone, but it was important so it doesn't count. There.
When the girls got here I was almost finished removing all traces of my daughter's existence from her bedroom. I only put her stuff in the other room, although my thoughts were telling me that all of the boxes should go to the curb. I said, "Thoughts, be quiet!" (much like Max tells the Wild Things to be quiet in the story) and I was able to finish moving her junk. The overwhelming wealth of goodies totally filled up the Julie's bedroom. Filled it. Up. Luckily, the neighbor girls are very strong and helpful so we got finished right away. We cleaned the empty bedroom, taped it, filled in the holes with cool hole filler stuff and primed the areas that needed it. I finally noticed their cell phones sitting on the window sills and my hands were starting to shake pretty badly from the effort of trying to resist the temptation to grab their phones and read whatever message was there. Of course, that would be completely rude and very childlike. Time for lunch.
Back to work. Still no music. Luckily the girls are older and can carry on an intelligent conversation. Occasionally, they would let me participate, so all was good. Plus, I was doing stupid things, so we had some good laughs. I still don't know how I got paint all over my arm before we even started painting. And I totally can't explain the paint on my back at all. We were working on the ceiling, no walls. Oh well.
After they left, it was still raining and I wanted to read my Kindle. Oops. Not allowed today. So, I had to get a dumb magazine. Really. I can't believe that I needed to hold it with both hands. I couldn't do anything but read that magazine. I kept looking at my Ipad and I was having improper thoughts, so I went into the kitchen to fix dinner. The first thing I did, of course, was turn on the TV so that it could keep me company while I was cooking. Damn. That habit thing is annoying. I told you I had a TV in all of the important rooms.
Around 8:00 my day was over. I know this because I always lay on the couch with my Kindle or watch TV until bedtime or until I fall asleep. Already during this first week off of school I have started falling asleep on the couch until midnight. Then I have to wake up and go to bed. How stupid is that? Another habit I have to fix. Bigger sigh.
Because my day was officially over around 8:00 it was okay for me to watch TV. Because I had gotten through my day. Officially. I'm the boss, so that's the way it is. I say so.
While my media free experiment was maybe not a complete success, it wasn't a total fail either. I am proud that I only messed up a few times. It was kind of fun to have conversations and think the thoughts that came into my head, strange though they were. It was cool to hear the rain all day. Ok, well, that got old after about a half hour, but it was kind of cool for a while. It was fun getting stuff done without being distracted by looking up something vitally important on the computer like, say, how old is Johnny Depp. I didn't even go on IMDB until after 8 pm when I was downloading Bramwell from Netflix and I needed to know what other shows some of the actors starred in right away . Since I did this on the TV with my Google enabled Blu Ray DVD player and my day was already done, this didn't count. I didn't use my Ipad all day. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
