Saturday, February 20, 2010

Writer's Life Tip #3

TAKE A VACATION

It's so easy these days to get caught up in everything. With the internet at our fingertips, we're either online at home, at the office, in the car (you know who you are! bad, bad, bad!), or in the restaurant/hockey rink/library/grocery story/airport terminal/park/wherever! We spend TOO much time in front of some electronic device, surfing and chatting.

I challenge you to take a vacation.


It can either be a literal vacation where you leave your home and spend a few days someplace else. Or, it can be an internet vacation where you turn off all of your devices and just be, like how you were back in the 80s.

Recently (like two days ago), my family took a quick trip to an indoor waterpark. The boys (read that as my kids and my husband) had a blast whooshing down water slides and pointing water guns at each other. A wave pool attracted the younger ones, while the grotto hot tub attracted us older types. It was bliss. The hotel didn't offer wifi, so my iPod Touch was just an mp3 player and a hand held gamer. My phone does not have a data package, but my husband's does. On the second day, where neither of us adults wanted to get wet, my husband surfed the net while I watched the commotion (uh, fun filled times) around us. Just being in the 95 degree area with 99% humidity made me feel groggy, but it was a pleasant grogginess. I did a lot of people watching, which is great for creating characters!

It was nice to get away from the gray and cold, even if it was for only two days.

If you don't have the cash, then why not stay with a family member or friend over night?

Don't want to hang out with family/friends? Well, turn off your computer. Pick up a great book. Write in journal. Take a walk outside. Walk around a mall. Go window shopping in your downtown or a town that you've always wanted to visit.

Get away and unplug.

You must take time for yourself, or you'll get too overloaded.

Trust me; I know!

1 comment:

SG Redling said...

Sister you are speaking my language! Just had a techno-gap of my own, less than 24 hours off line, and you'd have thought I'd been kidnapped. People were posting wanting to know where I was. (Trust me, I'm not that interesting.) Like anything else in our lives, we need to take breaks from technology/surfing/tweets etc to get refreshed. Watch folks try tho. funny. Good for you for getting your boys wet n wild instead of wired!