Phone Free Weekend!

So the other day at work I was talking to a couple co-workers and an idea sparked in my head.

An idea that some say is crazy.

An idea that some say will never work.

The idea is a challenge.

The challenge is 48 hours cell phone free.

And it's a challenge I attempted (and conquered) last weekend. This is my adventure.

Friday evening I was feeling pretty confident though as the midnight deadline I had created for myself was fast approaching I could feel just a hint of anxiety starting to build. For the most part I hadn't shared that I was going "off the grid" with most people in my life, there were however a select few that I knew might worry if they didn't hear from me for two days and I made sure they were in the know.

I had set an alarm on my phone to go off right before midnight and as it started to ring I had second, third, and fourth thoughts about this whole plan, but my determination won out and the phone went off at 12:02AM Saturday morning.

Now to be fair I should let you know that I did still use my iPad and iPod to listen to music, play games, and clean out my email... BUT with the no phone I decided to take a break from social media as well and I'm happy to say I stayed completely out of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram which I was not sure I could do let me just tell you!

I could go through each day minute by minute and hour by hour, but that seems boring.... at least it does to me, and I don't think you'd actually enjoy reading that. So instead I wanted to tell you just a few things I learned while living "off the grid".

I learned that I am 100% dependent on my phone to know what time it is. I honestly can't remember the last time I owned or wore a watch. There are also no clocks in my living room at all. Knowing what time it is can be ridiculously important when meeting people for dinner or figuring out if you have enough time to watch another episode of Supernatural before going to sleep and waking up hella early. Also... it should be noted that my cell phone is my alarm clock... I had to get creative for my early Sunday morning.

I learned that not living through Social Media and my phone gave me SO MUCH MORE TIME to just be around my friends. Being present with my friends in the moments as they were happening this weekend was so incredible. It gave me the opportunity to have real conversations without the distractions of notifications every 5 seconds.

I learned that not being tied to my phone was freeing. Since getting a cell phone around 15 years ago I can't think of a time I have not had it attached to my person in some way. Now as phones get "smarter" and the internet larger and everyone seems more and more connected to everyone else the attachment has only increased. It's become a life line of sorts, my life is so wrapped up in my phone with email and billpay and health tracking and the calendar and you know... everything!

I learned that I don't need to be connected.

Now with all of these new life lessons, I also learned that I like being connected usually. I like having my finger on the pulse... or whatever you want to call it. I like being able to check my Twitter account and see if my friends or a random person I follow has tweeted out something entertaining. I like to see how my friends are doing based on their Facebook status updates and seeing pictures of their random adventures. It makes me happy that I can send a text message to my friend and get an instant response. That when I'm hundreds of miles away or hundreds of feet away from someone I love, my words don't have to be.

And maybe that's super cheesy, but I don't care. I love cheese :)

So, I'm sure you're all wondering if this is going become a "thing" for me, eh? And honestly, I'm not sure, I certainly like knowing that I can detach if the need every arises. I will also absolutely be more conscious of the time I'm spending on my phone, specifically when I'm with a friend IRL. 

Oh! Before I close this all up, let me just tell you about the ridiculous ego boost that goes along with turning your phone BACK ON after being off for 48 hours! (And yes, it was a full 48 hours I didn't turn it back on until 12:02AM Monday morning.) The notifications were just wonderful and they popped up for a good 3-5 minutes as everything started to connect to the wi-fi. Absolutely wonderful.

Much love.

E

Photo Adventuring!

It's September.

The time of PSLs, sweatshirts, turning leaves, and crisp air.

So please explain to me why I'm sitting in a tank and cotton pants with my air conditioner going sweating balls...

Now I know that summer doesn't "officially" end until the 21st or whatever, but this sudden heat wave with added humidity is disgusting.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Not too hot. Not too cold. Nice breeze. Perfection! I don't think I could have asked for a better day for my photo adventure.

Oh let me tell you about my adventure! 

Early last week I decided I wanted to go out and take pictures, but I wanted a partner. I called up my good friend Amanda and we made plans to take an adventure on Sunday. We started off with one place I wanted to go, a church in a field. That's pretty much all I knew about it, I had been there earlier this year for a service and I just thought it looked so amazing inside and through the windows into the farm and fields next door.

On the way to said church we ended up lost more than once because even though I thought I knew where I was going, I was clearly wrong. (Worst navigator ever.) But we finally made it and the church was closed... worst news ever. But we were still able to take a few really great pictures of the farms and fields and even a few through the giant windows on the side of the church... why yes, yes we were being creepers.

Our next stop ended up being GUERRILLA PHOTOGRAPHY! What is "guerrilla photography" you ask? Well I don't actually know if it's a real thing or something I made up in my head... to me "guerrilla photography" is driving along, seeing something amazing, pulling over, and then BAM! Photos! We ended up in a weird parking lot with some pretty sweet typography on a building. There were also some trees so I took some creeper photos of Amanda. (Yes I'm a weirdo.) It was a good time.

We tried a couple other places, got lost again (Worst navigator ever.) and finally ended up at Palmer Park on one of their nature trails. If you've ever been there you know there are many, many, many nature trails in Palmer, we ended up on the boardwalk through the woods and by the creek. There were so many amazing photo opportunities throughout nature walk we ended up on. I also found my love of dead trees. Is that weird?

Let me try to explain. I'm not sure WHY I think this dynamic is amazing, but I love when everything around is green and alive and wonderful and in the midst is the forgotten tree, the dead tree, the broken tree. The amount of photos I took of random dead, broken, fallen trees was insane. It's just beautiful to me.

Me and my favorite dead tree by the path (Taken with iPhone):

We decided to head out to another park to get some sunset pictures and on the way I made Amanda pull over to watch this and we ended up in another church parking lot and there were SO MANY DEAD TREES!

My dead tree forest (Taken with iPhone):

After I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of this wooded area we ended up at Millennium Park for the sunset. It was gorgeous and amazing and I think I got some great photos for sure!

Sunset (taken with iPhone):

I can't explain how excited I am about photography. It's such a creative outlet and with digital photography "film" is unlimited. How can you go wrong?

The ride home was another adventure because I got us lost another 2 or 3 times (Worst navigator ever.) but Amanda was a great sport about it.

This is why I like hanging out with Amanda. She's so easy going and she just goes with the flow. It's good stuff and with so many people in my life having schedules and making plans it's refreshing to have a day where you just go where you end up.

Thank you 100 times over for adventuring with me Amanda!

I can't wait for Thursday night dinner and photo review with friends. (I love getting feedback on my photos and Kendra's husband Chris is kind enough to give it!)

Much love

E

New Adventure!

One of my favorite things to do is write.

Writing is calming.

Writing is cathartic.

Writing is... well it's just wonderful.

This year I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo for the second year (and hoping to win this year) so I was looking for ways to get into the habit of writing every single day.

Then!

I remember BEDA! Really I remember Kristina Horner talking about BEDA in a video once upon a time, BINGO! I've got my answer.

What better way to get into the habit of writing than to Blog Every Day in August. It's literally perfect. Literally!

So tomorrow starts my latest adventure in blogging and I'm more than a little excited about it!

I'm a little nervous about this commitment... but so incredibly excited!!

Wish me luck!