Off the Grid

So, I’m back.  Hi!   San Francisco was fabulous, of course.  I never thought it wouldn’t be.  More on that later.

Here was something interesting about my trip: I went to San Francisco without my laptop.  This was mostly because I didn’t feel like carrying it.  (It’s shocking how many decisions I make based almost entirely on laziness.) I don’t have a fancy internet phone either.  No one has internet cafes anymore.  So I was offline.  It was like re-entering 1996.

(Yeah, I think there was internet before 1996.  But it didn’t make it onto my radar until 1997, so whatever.)

So, no email, no facebook, no writing in my blog or reading the blogs I usually read.  No instant news or checking what the weather is going to be like in an hour so I know what to wear.  No looking up the name of that actor from that show on imdb.

I think, actually, that I usually use the internet a lot.  An entire week without it was rather nice.  I read a little, touristed a lot, got enough sleep for once, and generally didn’t miss it.

What was coolest about it though, was that for once I wasn’t instantly accessible.  If someone wanted to contact me, they’d have had to call the hotel and get patched through to my room, where I wouldn’t be but where they could leave a voice mail if they liked.  It was very freeing to know that.

Not that I don’t love the people in my life.  But it’s good for them to miss me now and then.  Adds to my mystique.  And we all know a girl needs a little mystique.