Back To Reality

Rach and I are back in the states after our seven-day couples retreat from the children.  After seven days of no kids, I still wasn't missing them.  After seven minutes on our flight back to the states, I was already missing Aruba.  It's not that I love Aruba more than I love my kids (it is a close second though), it's that I knew what was waiting for me back home.  As we landed in Orlando's International Airport, I could feel the tension mounting.

 In Aruba, none of our cell phones worked, in fact, most cell phones, except for those the locals had, didn't work.  I only saw two guys using a cell phone the entire week.  Nobody was texting while driving and people actually looked you in the face when you talked to them instead of staring down at their phone and mumbling the occasional "yeah" or "uh-huh".  It was glorious.  Everybody was actually paying attention to the life unfolding around them instead of worrying about status updates, e-mails, and text messages.

Then we landed in Florida.  The stewardess made the announcement that we could turn on our cell phones/laptops and then I knew the vacation was over.  For the remainder of our time in that airplane all I heard was how many text messages/facebook notifications/e-mails somebody had.  Enjoying life was over.  We could all get back to sharing pictures of cats.  It's great to be home.

Then I thought about my kids and how summer break would officially be "In Full Effect" once I came home.  I thought about how freeing it was (if only for one week) to live without time constraints, blog posts, website updates, and all the other things I spent so much of my time focusing on.  So while our vacation may be officially over, I'd still like to live in Aruban time where cell phones, blogging, and social media takes a backseat to observing the world around me and perhaps even participating in it.

Who's Ready for an Adventure!?