9 Months Sober!

It has been a very long time since I last updated my blog.  I have wanted to post something multiple times over the last year or so since I posted last, but I haven't known how to start back up. Do I just pretend nothing ever happened and go on like normal?  Do I have to have something extremely interesting and intriguing to write about to get things going again?  These, among many others, are the questions that I have asked myself when I have thought to start writing on my blog again.  I have everything and nothing to talk about.  So much has happened since I last wrote, and also in my day to day life, it's like nothing has happened. I guess I will just try to play catch up and see where it goes from there.

First things first, I should state the reason for my absence.  The truth is, I don't really know why I stopped.  Maybe it was laziness, maybe I felt like nothing significant was happening so what was the point?  Maybe it was a little bit of both.  On October 1, 2015 Jason and I made a monumental decision.  At least, I think it was pretty monumental.  We decided to get rid of our smart phones and swap them out for dumb ones. I know what you are thinking, as I have gotten it all so many times since I made the switch.  "Why did you guys do that?" "you guys are awesome, I would love to do that but I never could because I need it for work," and my personal favorite, "you guys must be saving a lot of money!"

As for the "Why?"  I will answer simply.  We were spending more time on with our technology than we were with each other.  It wasn't like we were any more obsessive about it than any of you.  It wasn't posing an immediate threat to our relationship at all.  We looked just like any other modern day couple.  The only problem was that we didn't like that picture.  We didn't want to look like any other modern day couple.  We didn't want technology to become more important to us than the person sitting next to us.  We wanted more undivided attention from others, and we wanted to give more undivided attention to others.  We had wanted to do this from the beginning of our marriage and it took us about a year and a half to finally take the plunge.  I also wanted to free myself from my addiction to technology.  For me, it was any and all types of social media.  I am guessing a lot of you share this same addiction.  If you don't, good for you!  If you do, but you think you don't, maybe it is time to re-evaluate?  I never even knew how much time I wasted on my smart phone until I didn't have one anymore.

To respond to the remark that "you guys are awesome, I would love to do that but I never could because I need it for work," I had that same reservation.  That's why it took me over a year and a half to finally do it.  However, it was just an excuse, because I could do it, and my business completely relies on my social media presence, and all of my clients are in contact with me directly via text and email.  I do all of my own booking, and I am constantly texting clients. Is it a little more inconvenient?  Yes, but barely. In fact, I have had more success with my business due to social media in the last 9 months without a smart phone than I ever did with one.  How is that possible?  I had more time to focus on my business.  I didn't waste hours and hours looking through my feed and looking at other people's lives.  I have an iPad, and I have done all of my posting from that.  I get on for about 20 minutes a day to build my business, then I get off of it.  I can build my business just as well using an iPad, and I waste a lot less time during the day.

"You must be saving a lot of money!"  Haha.  Yeah, obviously we are saving money, but that was of no consequence to us, and that is not the reason that we did it.  Honestly, we aren't even saving that much money.  Smart phone plan's aren't that much more expensive than the plan that we have now, and while we are saving money, it isn't enough to care about. I wanted to get a dumb phone because I wanted to spend more time with the people in my life instead of the people in my social media networks.  I wanted to get a dumb phone to break my obsession with needing to know what everyone else was doing all the time.  I wanted to get a dumb phone so I could enjoy my own life more, and not compare myself to the perfect pictures that people paint of themselves on their profiles.  I wanted a dumb phone for so many more reasons than I named, and I am so glad that I have a dumb phone even though I see people silently judging me and feeling bad for me every time I pull it out.  Hahaha seriously it is one of my favorite things to notice now, Jason and I laugh about it all the time!

I do miss a few things about the smart phone interface.  I miss the calendar, I miss the convenience of taking a picture of anything and everything all the time, I miss the voicemail, and I miss the way that I received group messages.  Believe it or not, group messages are like a bajillion times more annoying with a dumb phone because everyones messages come in a little individual message from that single person, and you can't respond to the whole group.  Super dumb.  But those are the only things that I miss.  If I ever got a smart phone again, it would be without Data and I would only want one for the convenience of the way that the phone works.

Anyway, I didn't expect this to turn into such a long post about my dumb phone, I mostly just wanted to tell you guys that we got dumb phones and move on to more exciting things, but I guess that will have to come another day, and it just gives me a reason to write another post here soon so I can update you on more important things!  I promise my next post will be more intriguing.  But then again, maybe I shouldn't make any promises, because I would hate to disappoint. TTYL. HAGS. NEVER CHANGE!