Oct 10 - Apologies & a 21st Century Saturday

OK, I will start with my apology for being a bad puppy. I have not blogged since my Dental appointment on Wednesday (way back on October 7). Why you may ask? Well, something cropped up at work that threw me off my game for a day (which I will not blog about) and after it was set right the following day (which I also will not blog about), I found myself on Saturday.

So with that out of the way, let's talk about Saturday. Lately I've been finding that my weekends rarely have any big plans. Oh, I have plans... errands and chores, watering my plants (both back and front). Random shopping, squeeze in the gym (before I can no longer squeeze into my pants), maybe run a couple miles... etc.

Today? Well... color me Lazy! My eyes popped up under my sleeping mask (which I've resorted to on Friday and Saturday nights so as not to wake at 6AM like I normally do for work) - where was I? Oh, yes, my eyes popped open at 8AM and fight as I might to fall back to sleep, the brain began churning, so up I popped.

Well... 'popped' might be too lively a term for what I did. Let's say I slowly sauntered into the kitchen to being brewing a few cups of the Magical Elixir of Life (coffee for those non-caffeinated folks). Once brewed, I poured myself a nice mugful with a packet of Splenda and a splash of NDC (non-dairy creamer, cha) and made my way to my comfy leather chair to check email, enter my 90 or so online sweepstakes (don't ask!) and watch this week's eps of "General Hospital" (yay!) from SoapNet.

After that was done, my feet were cold so I decided to lay down again... oh, and watched "Survivor: Borneo" from CBS.com as my DVR didn't catch it for some reason on Thursday. Anyway, after that I was comfy and lazy and moved on to The Travel Channel's "Man vs. Food" (I am disgusted by what and how much these people are eating on a regular basis!) and finally pulled my flabby butt out of bed to run a couple miles (by now it's about 2:30!).

Coming home, I stripped out of my sweaty stuff and hit the shower. Ahhh that was nice. Came out and took out some trash and recycling, watered all the plants and then sat down to work on my iPod (THAT will be a blog unto itself! but suffice it to say, I have to listen to nearly 16,000 more songs to 'certify' them as 'clean' - again, that's a blog unto itself).

Finally around 5:30, Mark calls with a needed errand into Pasadena to return some shoes and once there, we grab a bite, some Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (note - Pumpkin Latte as returned for a limited time!) and then back to my place where we perused YouTube until 11PM.

What the hell? That's my 21st Century Saturday. Take it back 20 years (when my grandparents were still around). With the exception of taking out the trash, watering plants, running and showering (oh, and the fact that "General Hospital" is STILL on the air), there is nothing about my day that would have made sense the them!

DVR, iPod, Laptop, YouTube, abrevs like "eps" (and "abrevs"), the fact that I can now watch my TV shows whenever I want to (and skip the mostly over-modulated and boring commercials - thank you!) and Splenda - these would all be alien concepts to them and got me thinking about what my Grandparents 20th Century Saturdays were like. I'm guessing chores and errands were still there (I remember shopping with my grandparents for Rye Bread in Philadelphia), but without iPods, Laptops, the entire Internet thing for that matter, and still living in the Dark Ages of Appointment Television, I'd bet their days were filled with much more fulfilling past times.

Have our lives become so entwined with and ruled by our technology that we can no longer simply go to a park and sit and think? Pull out a sketchbook and doodle something? Pull out a camera and just walk around snapping whatever catches our eye? Hey, and in the 21st Century, the camera thing's gotten easier because we don't have to waste 'film' by snapping unnecessary photos (as they did) since most of us probably have a digital camera and can simply delete them. That frees me up to take as many photos as I want and if doesn't turn out, it doesn't. No biggie.

So maybe that's it. Maybe we should be using our 21st Century Technology to 'enhance' our grandparents' 20th Century Experiences? Maybe tomorrow (Sunday) I will make a point of putting more meaningful experiences into the day.

No, not "maybe tomorrow", BUT "tomorrow."