the best laid plans

For the past few days, my house has been living sans internet. We feel naked, we feel detached, we feel… strangely liberated! I believe there are emotional stages that a person goes through when they have no internet in the house. First you realize that your internet is out, you casually head downstairs to where your modem and router live, and start to fiddle. You fiddle for a while and think you know what you’re doing because you’ve declared yourself the household network technician. After the blinking lights stop blinking, you head back upstairs to reap the benefits of your genius whereupon you discover that the internet is still out. This dance goes on for about another 30-45 minutes; back to the modem, fiddle… fiddle… fiddle…, back up stairs, internet is still out.

The next stage is realization. This is where anxiety sets in and you begin to understand that there will be no email, no facebook, no twitter, no flickr, no hulu, no youtube, no net tonight! It’s like being stood up. You head back downstairs for a final fiddle… still no internet.

Stage three (final stage): exploration and acceptance. It’s only 8pm, not time for bed, dinner has long been over, it’s too dark to go outside, so you start to wander around the house looking for things to do. Read a book, take a bath, play a game with your roommates.

After a few days of going through the stages, the first two start to becoming less and less important. Since our internet at the house has been out, I’ve read two books, finished a few projects, my room is immaculately clean, and my laundry never piles up! I do still feel the need to check my email, and I know my roommates and I will have to resolve the cyber void, but for now I’m enjoying the imposed loss of connection… besides – I still have my cell phone!