{"id":13534,"date":"2012-03-31T00:05:05","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T07:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=13534"},"modified":"2012-03-31T00:05:05","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T07:05:05","slug":"disconnect-to-reconnect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/13534","title":{"rendered":"Disconnect to Reconnect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<span style=\"color: #008000;\">Wondering who I am? I&#8217;m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/10477\">former life<\/a> &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m doing it, hens. The impossible. The never-before attempted. The merit badge requirement that leaves me nervous, weirded out, and full of butterflies in my stomach. More than sewing, more than getting greasy with my car, more than the thought of tent camping \u2026<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image wp-image-34718\" alt=\"IMG_0770-r\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/IMG_0770-r1.jpg\" width=\"360\" height=\"476\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.farmgirlsisterhood.org\/badges-op-disconnect.asp\">turning off all my electronic gadgets <\/a>for a day.<\/p>\n<p>I keep thinking I\u2019m ready, but then I have to check Facebook one more time. <em>Just one more status update.<\/em> How ironic is it that my status update is about <strong>not <\/strong>being on Facebook? Like a black fly in my chardonnay. Tru dat.<\/p>\n<p>About two hours into my little self-deprivation experiment, my fingers and thumbs are itching to send a text. My pile of all things tech-y look so sad and lonely and dead, stacked up in the corner, that I feel survivor\u2019s guilt and have to leave the house.<\/p>\n<p>The thought of going for a little stroll at twilight without my phone nearly sends me into a panic. I always thought that if I was kidnapped by thugs or aliens, they\u2019d give me a moment to call for help. You know, like, <em>hey, thugs, look over there! Beep, beep, beep, is this 911? Yes, I\u2019d like to report the kidnapping of me. Oh nothing, thugs-of-mine, I was just mumbling to myself.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Now I\u2019ll really have to have my wits about me and get my karate skillz on, in case of danger. Never mind that I only know Pilates and a smattering of Yoga.<\/p>\n<p>All that paranoid imaginings about danger got me pretty far in my evening walk and I am surprised to find myself doing alright. To think I would have sent and answered about a dozen texts by now about mundane things and missed this sunset. Huh? Those merit badge requirements people must know a thing or two, I\u2019ll give them that. Though my fingers still twitch every few minutes, kinda like those phantom pains I hear amputees have.<\/p>\n<p>Twitch, twitch.<\/p>\n<p>On the way back home, I hear crickets doing their Jiminy Cricket thing, and I notice some trees starting to bloom. I almost missed spring while I was busy updating and blogging and snooping and downloading! At first my ears were itching for their familiar ear buds and a little Adam Levine, but now they\u2019re tuning in to Jiminy and some totally delightful sounding birds. A girl could get used to this solitary stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Wait. What if Ken is trying to call?<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t help speed walking at that thought. Then I remember what Gramma Barbie always said about playing hard to get, and so I will myself to stay strong. I can do this. Even if I\u2019m a little cold and clammy and starting to shake a bit. That\u2019s just withdrawal. I went through the same thing when I quit drinking triple-shot iced mochas. Cold (clammy) turkey.<\/p>\n<p>I head to bed. Early. There\u2019s nothing else to do and I don\u2019t trust myself near my gadgets.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t heard from me by tomorrow evening, I\u2019ve totally been kidnapped.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wondering who I am? I&#8217;m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life &#8230; I\u2019m doing it, hens. The impossible. The never-before attempted. The merit badge requirement that leaves me nervous, weirded out, and full of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/13534\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/13534\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[363,548,566,574],"class_list":["post-13534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters","tag-gladsome-sisters","tag-maryjanesfarm-farmgirl-sisterhood","tag-mba-jane","tag-merit-badge-awardees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}