the opposite of usual

Last night we had dear friends over for dinner. Out of the seven of us, 4 celebrate birthdays in May, which was a serious reason to celebrate with both vanilla and chocolate cakes for dessert. Compared to my usual frenzy, I spent several hours doing just about nothing. I curled up in the corner of my couch and listened to my super cool, super cute, retro glasses wearing, 13 year old friend play guitar—most of us chiming in for You Can't Always Get What You Want (even I overcame my shyness about how horribly I sing to belt out that one). We played balloon ball for quite the long time, at times only being along to keep it aloft with our feet. We chatted away through cuban chinese food, lots of cake (I'm still sugar free so I easily declined pieces), and I was really sorry to see everyone leave at 10 or so. We could've chatted for hours more.

That doesn't happen often for me. Sitting still. Relaxing in one place. Not feeling obligated to rush around and accomplish.

Not being plugged in. Checking things. Making connections. Tweeting. Responding. Posting. Thinking about what to say, how to make it interesting, hoping people will plug in and answer.

Instead I was completely in the moment (most of the moments anyway).

At this moment, aside from blogging, I've already got a cake in the oven, have to pack 3 people to get out to Fire Island this morning, need to make trips to the bagel store, supermarket, and coffee shop, still have to take a shower, straighten up, unload the dishwasher from the load that's now running and fold laundry from last night. This is my typical state of being. But, I'm thinking the former is far better for me.

We're visiting friends who've banned electronic devices from the house. I'll still have my phone but I'll be far less connected/distracted than usual.

Usually that would send me into a frenzy. Today? I'm looking forward to the emptiness.