The Internet! Or... lack thereof

Usually you can blame my horrible irregular blogging tendancies on my own neglect... but as of late, you can blame it on one thing: the INTERNET. Because, you see, hubby and I have been living life sans internet for almost an entire week.

Yes, my friends. It's true. Surprisingly, I have not spontaneously combusted due to my life's lack of Facebooking (though I have had a few mental breakdowns over not having access to my favorite blogs and Pinterest...).

See, hubby and I like to put as much money aside for my clothes from the Gap our future home as possible from my salary each month and we've adopted the "envelope system" otherwise and spend no more than $100.00 per week, not including the cost of gas. Of course, there are other monthly costs that are non-negotiable as well: electricity, cell phone, one pack of beer for the hubby, gym membership for me... And up until last October, we lived on our college campus apartments, which meant we had free utilities, cable AND internet.

And we moved out. What were we thinking!?

Well, probably that the 500 square foot closet we were living in just wasn't going to cut it for the next couple years of marriage. But besides that.

But lucky us, when we moved in last October, some silly amazing person didn't secure their wireless internet. Whooo for free wi-fi! Of course, we knew the day would come when they wised up and secured it so little scavengers like us couldn't piggyback anymore... and that day came last May and was followed by a chorus of sobs from hubby and I. Luckily, we were moving to our hometown for the summer and didn't need the internet in our apartment during that time. So we crossed our fingers and hoped someone new would move in and give us that wonderful little gift yet again this year.

Alas, no such luck. So now we face the life altering decision to pay 30 bucks a month for internet access or not. How will we choose? Save $360.00 a year... or live without Pinterest, Facebook and the blogosphere while not at work? AH!

Initially, I wasn't sure how we'd cope without our constantly plugged in addiction. The thought of not being able to see if so-and-so broke up with so-and-so, or seeing the latest pictures of my former roommate's cousin's best friend's step-sister killed me. HOW did we survive ten years ago when we didn't have this brain draining service constantly at our fingertips? How could life go on?

But it did. And it has. Maybe for the better.

Hubby and I talk more, and possibly even better, laugh more. We sit on our deck and read. He helped me cook the other night. We take walks, go for drives, enjoy these last beautiful summer evenings... And because of this, part of me thinks that maybe we shouldn't get back online in our apartment.

Unfortunately, there's too many things that are inconvenient to not have the internet. Hubby can't hop on Blackboard for his college courses in the evenings to do his homework. More minor? There's no checking the weather or getting news updates. Or seeing what my favorite style bloggers wore Wednesday (WIWW? Anyone? Love it. Maybe I need to start that here, since I'm sure you're ALL wondering what I wore Wednesday!)

So I guess we're kissing our $360 good-bye this year and we're signing ourselves up for the zombie-ensuing service that is the internet.

But hopefully this time we'll rememeber how nice it was to come home and have someone to talk to. And we'll make the choice to quit pinning, stalking facebooking and shopping -- and, instead, start living.