Eleven days unplugged got me thinking. Without as much noise and things to check and update constantly, there was space for other things.
Like, learning about myself, even at the ripe ol’ age of 26.
Things I learned about myself on summer vacation:
Being in a quiet space makes my thoughts grow in proportion. It gets me writing in an actual journal. It gets me ruminating about what I like about my life and what I’d like to change. Gets me scheming and dreaming and planning and hoping. My dreams are bigger where the sky is bigger.
If left to my own devices, I could watch HGTV and Cupcake Wars (okay, anything on Food Network) for hours. And hours. We haven’t had a TV for over two years now and it’s not that I don’t like television, it’s that I like it too much to have one. Nothing would ever get done ever. A few times during our time on the farm, in the middle of Iron Chef, probably, Mike had to ask me if this is what I wanted to do with my night. I’d turn off the TV and grab a book. Aside from the usual getting-sucked-into-reality-TV-fun (“I swear to God, if Percy doesn’t get voted off, I’m going to hurt someone! Jessica is doing this for her kids! She seems so sweet.. ARGH! Not Jessssicaa..Wait. Why the hell do I care about this so much?”), sometimes HGTV would turn into a pity party for ourselves: “What?! How can that 25-year-old afford a $400,000 mortgage? Pass the fudge.” It’s a healthy addiction.
I am a city girl – or at least not a country girl. While vacationing in the middle-of-nowhere-farmland was wonderful, there were a few too many bugs for me. While I don’t much mind them making webs in cupboards or in corners I can’t see them, I don’t enjoy finding earwigs in my clean, folded laundry or in the towel I’m using after a shower. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I’ve ever found a bug in our apartment, aside from a stray fly. Your apartment will be always pest and bug-free with ExcellentPestguysofPittsburgh.com – Bed Bug Treatments in Pittsburgh. Also, our favorite vacation activity (or anytime activity, actually), is eating delicious food at cute, unique restaurants. Country towns, while adorable, don’t always have as much to offer in the way of quirky coffee shops or fun, foodie-type joints. Fortunately, we got our fix while in Ithaca (NY) and Amherst (MA). We had uber-hipster bubble tea, sushi, hole-in-the-wall Thai, tapas, tofu mole burritos, and pizza topped with broccoli ricotta. Food is love.
And, speaking of Ithaca and Amherst, I love college towns. I love how they are progressive and filled with interesting shops and people. I love how they are full of energy and bookstores. I love how I feel at home there, in a little bubble of like-minded individuals. Also, I have a slight obsession with natural parenting stores; though I can’t afford most things they carry, I love just being in them.
I am biggest wimp of all time. Also: my imagination is ginormous. Being in a cottage in the quiet, middle-of-nowhere? Is freaking scary in the dark, silent, there-is-probably-a-murderer-on-the-porch-or-maybe-in-the-kitchen night. The cottage was filled with books about communicating with the dead and zombie apocalypses, which only fueled the fire of my imagination. Combine that with a few late night phone calls to a ‘wrong number’ (“They just want to see if someone is home to murder!”) and this picture on the wall that looked like a mirror until you got close and THIS popped out at you (SURPRISE! HOLOGRAM!), and you can see why I might be on edge. Then again, I check behind the shower curtain every time I use the bathroom at night.
I am open to the idea of maybe, possibly, one day, could-happen homeschooling. Perhaps. I read a really fascinating book (found in a college town bookstore, naturally) and the idea doesn’t seem as absolutely not-for-me-ever as it did before. Of course, school is five years away and I have no desire whatsoever to figure out what I’m doing school-wise anytime soon. It requires a whole lot more thinking and researching and talking. Plus, it’s too hot a topic for me to touch. I’m tired of controversial issues, you know?
Being out of the loop is nice. But also odd. I feel left out. I’m confused. Help. I came back and had absolutely no idea what was going on. With anyone, online or off. I still feel a bit out of it, to be honest. It’s like when I spent a semester in Hawaii and had no idea what the heck everyone else had been doing. Alas.
And, now, here is our entire eleven-day vacation in two-and-a-half minutes. Check it out and maybe it’ll be like a mini-vacation for you, too. Or maybe it’ll just make you want to go on vacation yourself:
I loved the pictures and how you displayed them! :-)
I must be out of the loop, but I’ve never thought of homeschooling as a controversial topic. Hmm. Eric was homeschooled (unschooled, really), and I’m the happy, very satisfied product of public education, my parents are public school principals, and still we’ve planned to homeschool since long before we were ready to have kids. I love traveling too much to deal with the academic year time constraints!
Anyway, it sounds like your trip was just what your soul needed. I’m also a bug wuss–I border on panicking when I see a spider, so props to you for being out in the country!
I’ve recently come to the conclusion myself that the restaurants are the best thing about living in the city. Just can’t do the family diner anymore that all have the same menu where the only vegetarian option is the greasy grilled velveeta cheese sandwhich.
I love having the time to just be and think in the quiet like that. We’re hoping to fit a camping excursion in this fall with the little one, and I can’t wait for the quiet moments.
I love the idea of homeschooling (but not unschooling) but I don’t think it’s for us. Because I feel like I would need someone else to be “teacher” so that I could be “mother”. Does that make sense? I do have homeschooling dreams, though! And I have dreams that Chris might one day be able to work from “home” and we can just go where we please. Too much to ask? probably.
Glad you had a good trip. Sorry about the bugs, though. Ew.
I am not a country girl for the bugs reason as well. :) I just can’t do it because I always fear I’m going to get bit by some weird bug that carries a deadly disease.
I have many friends who were homeschooled. I know it’s a sticky subject but I love that you’re open to the possibility!
I totally made fun of my boyfriend’s mother for having HGTV all. the. time while we were living with them last year. And now? It’s either that or FoodNetwork most often on my television.
They are addictive. If only so I can lust over the designs/food that are up on the screen.
I absolutely love your slideshow/video! Makes me all nostalgic for past vacations.
We just cancelled our cable – it’s such a time suck! Even if nothing’s on, I still sit there with the remote, flicking through all the channels. Ugh. I’m definitely NOT a city girl – I grew up in the country and I always feel like the city sucks the life out of me …
okay that video/slideshow is seriously incredible! i loved watching the progression of your trip, appreciated all of the food pics you took ;), and it made me want to get away (preferably with a cute baby!!) so glad you guys had a blast!
Trips with babies ARE especially fun, I must say. ;)
Man, your kid is so cute it’s a little bit crazy.
P.S. I have a lot of (admittedly) biased opinions on homeschooling, but there are lots of good resources out there and I’m sure you’d be great at it :)
Ah, yes, now I want to go on vacation. Excellent slide show. I wish I could borrow you for a day to take pics of Jay…I love all of yours.
School is more like 3-4 years away ;) but I agree with you, I am not ready to think about all that. Not at all.
This really makes me wish I took more photos. That little video was so perfectly charming.
I check behind shower curtains too. If I use the bathroom at a friend’s house and the shower curtain is closed, I will always, always check behind it just to make sure no one is waiting to murder me.
i check behind a shower curtain every time i’m in a bathroom, day or night!!
also, love all of the pictures, seriously you’re such an amazing photographer and gabe is just the cutest little thing. i can’t believe how big he’s gotten!
I also LOVE college towns, and I am smack dab in the middle of a week in Boulder, Colorado right now, reliving the year I lived here and loving ALL of the things you just mentioned: the energy, the progressiveness, the shops, and restaurants. And bookstores! All of it. Also… I homeschooled for 5 1/2 years (and look back on it with crazy fondness), so if that’s ever anything you want to talk about, lemme know :)
Really interesting blog, keep up the good work!