The Experiment

As we have established before, I write for my good mental health. If you find it amusing -- great. So in the spirit of my good mental health, I am shutting off my timer while I work on the blog.

It's been interesting. So far I have noticed that I watch more daytime TV and snack more. I'm not sure that's keeping with my original goal of finding more productive uses of my time, but rather than get all obsessive over it, I have revised my goal to just keep my computer time within 30 minutes a day and see what happens.

This morning Toddler D and I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain which left us wanting to travel to New York City where we would disguise ourselves as locals and eat a pastrami sandwich in a deli. We followed this with an episode of Samantha Brown Passport to Europe(complete change of pace as you Travel Channel lovers will know) which left us desirous of a trip to Innsbruck, Austria, with a camcorder and a guide from the chamber of commerce.

Since starting the 30 minute thing last week, I have had strange dreams every night about unfinished projects or people trying to intimidate me physically. I wake up exhausted from the fight. You'd think this would make me want to quit, but instead it gives me the feeling I am on the right track and working something out . . . whatever it is.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to buy a purse. I knew just what I wanted and made a quick purchase with two minutes to go. For whatever reason, I then checked eBay where I found it new with tags for less money. I bought that one too and then felt stupid. Stupid for making an emotional purchase of something I didn't really need. Stupid for buying it because I was running out of computer time for the day. Stupid for checking for a different price after I'd bought it. Stupid for buying two of the same thing . . . even if I could send one back.

This morning I got an email from the eBay seller. She felt awful, but she couldn't find this purse. Where could it be? Would I like her to ship something else at the same price or would I like a refund? Even though I wished it was the more expense purse that disappeared, I saw it as a sign, asked for a refund and she gave it immediately.

This has me absolutely convinced I should keep on truckin'. It was such a little thing -- the purse incident -- in a seemingly silly game of "stay off the computer," but I read somewhere recently that it's possible for a butterfly to start a chain reaction that ends in a typhoon.

Maybe I should get out my raincoat.