Facebook-less Life

I gave up my Facebook for the summer.  I'm not one of those who rails against the damn thing, it's dead useful for organizing birthday parties and determining if the guy you gave your number to has a girlfriend.  However I, Ashley, have been spending more and more time filling my brain with trivial information about people I don't know very well, and since I have no self-control whatsoever I have cut off my addiction at the source.

Day One: I missed it.  I felt the need to know what everyone ate for dinner, who was wailing over an INSANE amount of homework for a summer class, and who needed a drink because something happened to make them acutely aware of how much their job sucks.
Day Five: I don't miss it.

I have been filling my days with reading books (most good, some not so much), watching Mad Men, and doing crossword puzzles.  Mostly reading.  I found a couple of stories that captivated me and have been devouring them for the past week.  It reminds me of how I used to read all the time in elementary school.

When I say all the time, I really do mean it.  I read every possible free second of every day.  I read on the bus to school (resulting in nausea), I read during lunch rather than talk to other kids, I read at recess, I  would slip my books into a larger textbook and read during class.  There's even a picture of me at a swim meet with my cap on, suit soaking wet, wrapped in a towel with a book in hand.  I was teased pretty severely for it, but only two or three times because for all my dorky tendencies I had no timidity and the other kids figured out quickly that teasing me only resulted in scathing retorts and the occasional ineffective punch.

It really got out of hand though, on one occasion when my second grade teacher asked me a question during class.  I responded with shushing her and holding up a finger until I finished my paragraph.  Only then did I put down my "textbook," sigh, and say, "What was the question?".  We had a parent-teacher conference with that poor teacher in the next few days and a deal was struck in our household.  If I  wouldn't act like a snot-nosed brat for the rest of the school year, I would get an American girl doll.

Those suckers costed like $80, and was a true testament of how out of control my sass was.  My parents were appalled by my lack of respect for the teacher.  I distinctly remember earnestly telling them that the teacher wasn't smart (something I doubt was true) and that I had already figured out whatever boring thing she was teaching (this was true), I just didn't hear the specific question asked of me.  To this day my parents shake their heads over the time when they had to result to bribing me to read less.  I behaved myself, or at least enough so the teacher didn't let on to how much she despised me, and got my doll.

I never know how to conclude a blog post... I feel like I should end with words of wisdom, only I'm not wise and anyone saying otherwise at 23 is a moron.  So I guess I'm just regressing back to my childhood: no Facebook, and loads of reading.

A really good day.

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