Year 2, Day 117: Digitally Disconnected

On Friday night, after tennis, and dinner, and what have you, I realize with some horror that my father-in-law, in acknowledgement that we are packing up the house to sell it, has turned off the cable service. Now mostly, this should be no big deal, but in every one of life's transitions there is that moment, that change, that realization that is different from all the others. It hits you like a punch. And this was it for me. It seems silly, and shallow, but when I realized that there was not only no cable (he only had basic anyway, never any movie channels) but actually no television reception at all (except for some kind of UHF Indian channel), I got really really depressed, and for so many reasons. For starters, there were the practical matter of how to distract our kids on what we knew was going to be a rainy saturday. But more for me, it was how I would be "digitally disconnected." The house never had an Internet connection, though in the late 90s Emily and I did try to set up her mother with an old Mac that we equipped with AOL which she called "an online." So I am already resigned, when there, to not be able to get my email, or access the Internet in any kind of way. When I realized also that there would be no aimlessly relaxing in the comfy living room just channel surfing, after the kids were in bed (and 20 years ago it was when the parents were in bed) I just felt sad. I realized both how dependent I had become on staring into one cathode ray or another, and really for the first time, realized that we, as in the collective we, won't live here anymore.

Breakfast
2 Eggs
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
1 Slice Balthazar Rye Bread
Green Tea

Snack
Coffee

Lunch: Leftover Banquet
Beef with Snowpeapods mixed
with Chicken and Asparagus, plus
sliced radish and wasabi

After Lunch Snack
2 Slices of Cooked Turkey


Graduation Party
Olives (with Pimentos)
Cashews
Turkey
Mediterannean Salad: Scallions, Cucumbers, Red Onions, Tomatoes
Hummus, Babbaganous, more tomatoes and olives

No matter how hard my resolve is to be on the diet, I will always struggle with parties and buffets and any place that food is randomly displayed throughout a house or room just waiting to be eaten. In reviewing what I've written here, it doesn't seem that bad what I ate, but overall the day felt heavy with out-of-control eating. I suspect it has something to do with the ever-present dual temptations of olives and cashews. I certainly ate my fill, all through the night. For the most part I was shuffling back and forth between the kids and trying to be social, but I did manage to polish off quite a bit of mediterranean salad simultaneously.