The Digital Sabbatical

I don't know if you can really say that you are taking a sabbatical if 1) you are not an academic or 2) are only taking it for two days, but I didn't come up with the term so I'm not going to be picky (I stole the idea from Rowdy Kittens). As part of my observance of Lent, I'm using the weekends to take a digital sabbatical meaning that I am avoiding my computer and smart phone (beyond making phone calls) on Saturdays and Sundays. The first and second weekends of Lent were easy because we were out of town the first weekend and the second weekends was consumed with laundry and house projects. Last weekend we finally had some down time and I felt the full force of my internet fast. I would typically have whittled away a good deal of time reading the the paper online, lurking on Facebook and catching up on some of my favorite blogs, maybe trolling Etsy or Craigslist. Last Saturday, I did this instead:


In case you can't tell, that would be a meticulously rendered drawing of Imperial Star ships and fighters duking it out with Rebel Destroyer Blaster Bazingas. Or something like that. When you draw the lasers, you have to say "pow, pow, pow" in a laser-y voice. The green stuff is from the slime shooters. One of the ships shoots candy canes and peppermint drops. You are NOT allowed to draw heart shooters. I would love to tell you that the two hours I spent doing this were the best of my life, that I learned deep and meaningful truths about parenting and creative play and exploring color and geometry while experiencing world through the innocent perspective of my gifted offspring. Truth be told I kind of missed the weekend paper and I didn't have enough coffee. And I had a cold. And also it is hard to be bossed around by an eight year old because your ARE DOING IT WRONG. And my gifted offspring likes Stars Wars a little too much and talks non-stop. But. Watching the wheels in my child's brain spin is absolutely delightful and fascinating and funny. Really, really, really funny.
I also used some time last weekend to read and on Sunday afternoon I slept for four hours (because I was sick). I can't say that I wouldn't have done these things had I allowed myself access to a computer, but somehow it was easier to do them. Sort of as if I had permission. It wasn't life altering or cathartic, but it was nice. And I'll always take nice.

Spring, Thou Art a Fickle Bitch

We returned from a fantastic spring break trip to California to sunny days and temperatures in the mid-50's. Not spectacular, but I'll take mid-50's over mid-20's any day. The tulips in our back yard popped up and I began to feel the tingle of the slow thawing of my fingers and toes, and, dare I say it, a ray of hope for warm days and running outside. Then. Grrrr. Snow. Lots and lots of wet icky snow. Grrrr. This time of year makes me crazy and crabby. And also I came down with a cold, could not remember where the power button for my computer was this morning, and forgot how to log into work because I hadn't done it in over a week. And also-also, the dog ran out of food and my car is nearly out of gas.

But...ahh...... Spring Break. A whole week off. We decided that seeing how Garion is now 8, we had better take that poor boy to Legoland before he was too old to enjoy it or he died of envy because all his friends had been and he had not. Garion loved everything there, but most of all the new roller coaster that hurtles you down a big slope before chucking you back up another one.


I did not ride the down and up-chuck roller coaster. I did ride the dragon roller coaster and discovered that a roller coaster is made all the more terrifying by the sight of your baby sitting in front of you, by himself, with his hands in the air while the contraption that you are both stuck to hurtles around corners at 90-ish degree angles. It took everything I had to suppress the urge to yell "young man put your hands down right this minute!"



The next day we headed down to Cabrillo National Monument, where for once in our lives we were somewhere at precisely the right time, peak tide pool exploring hours. The tide pools were my favorite part of the trip along with the thrill of hearing Garion yell, "Mom! Look--a hermit crab!! Oh, Mom, over here!! Mom, look at this!" He even let me take his picture without making a face:



Possibly this sweetness is why we totally caved when Garion begged to go to Disneyland to ride more roller coasters. Thunder Mountain was his favorite of all the roller coasters and he was so happy to be at Disneyland that he even consented to riding Pirates of the Caribbean twice just to make his mother happy. Garion has informed us that next time, he would like to go to Magic Mountain, please, where they have real roller coasters. So that will be a very special father-son trip.