Chicken Teriyaki Bowl #7

This week I am eliminating reading from my diet.  No books, magazines, blogs, feeds, friendfeed, websites, or newspapers.  I made a couple of allowances, though.  I had to in order to get work done.  I could look up code and programming info I needed while working on projects.  I could read the Creativityist posts and comments pertaining to the Artist’s Way.  I expanded a bit today to allow myself to read only the most recent post of the people participating in the Artist’s Way Collective.

I made that last exception to see how others were coping with reading deprivation.  For me it has been tough.  I’ve discovered (as if I didn’t already know) that I’m lazy by nature.  Sure, I could spend the time I usually spend reading doing something productive, like painting that wall in the living room where a cabinet stood and the former occupant just painted around it instead of moving the darn thing, so we have a big rectangle of unpainted wall and we’ve lived here for a year and a half.

Let’s see, what have I done instead?  Taken naps.  Gone for long drives to areas of the valley I’ve never been and almost running out of gas out in the wild hinterland, but finding a gas station after 10 miles of gas warning light, to be pleasantly surprised that the price of the gas wasn’t any more than in town.  I’ve written several poems, went out and sketched Union Gap - the actual gap, the one between the hills which gives the town its name.  I finished a pair of socks that have been lying around since last winter, although when I got done I realized that the patterns didn’t match, but no one will really notice, right?

My wool socks

I also came up with a great idea for the novel I’m going to write during NaNoWriMo in November.  It is going to need some research, so I even brainstormed some questions I need answered and that I can research during October.

I also dried pounds and pounds of prunes and hot peppers, did the laundry and kept the kitchen clean on a daily basis.

Reading back, this actually looks like I did a lot, but in the past four days I could have read 3-4 entire books, depending on size and how hard they are.  I also spent a lot of time just staring out of the window.  I wonder if that is the point of this whole exercise.  By regaining the time I usually spend reading I lived life much slower.  I had more time to get things done and didn’t have to rush through my day.  Slow living.