You didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway. I've been

Reading. That's all I've been doing lately. I forcefully took my life back from the insatiable beast that is the World Wide Web, and threw myself back into literature. Thus far, it's been great. I haven't felt like this in years, and I'm loving every second of it. It's amazing how quickly the Internet becomes a large part of a person's life, you know? It starts with one site that you read every other day... then another site that you read and comment on every now and then. Before you know it, your have about 20 sites bookmarked that you're visiting every single day, and about 10 sites that you're visiting or updating every other hour.

The friend networks, the blogs, the information sites... I had tons. Anyway, a month or two ago, I got sick of it and stopped. Just like that. It wasn't planned or anything. I was replying an email one night when I glanced at the time and realized that I had been online for four straight hours. When I tried to think of what I'd done for those four hours, I couldn't come up with anything tangible. Basically, I'd gone from page to page, reading and commenting.

I'm not sure what I felt when I realized this. I've tried to think of how to label or even define the emotions that swept through me... I can't. All I know is that I had this intense, almost overwhelming desire to get away from my laptop. I saved a draft of the email I was writing, walked to my bookshelf, and grabbed the first book my hand touched. It happened to be 'Sands of Time' by Sidney Sheldon. Even though I've read that book over a million times, that night I lay in bed and read the first eight chapters through without pausing once.

After that night, I just sort of lost interest in the Internet... I really did. Don't get me wrong, I'd come online everyday, but it was for the basic stuff... Check mail, do budget, pay bills, things like that. Since that night, I've rediscovered my love of/for the written word... I've always been a reader; I mean, that's a given. Somewhere along the line though, reading had somehow become something I did almost as an afterthought. Something I did more from habit than a genuine desire. Lately though, I've been reading like crazy, and I love it. I've started going book hunting again... On weekends, I head to flea markets and thrift shops to scour through their extensive, very diverse collection of books.

Along with this newly reignited passion of mine has come other positives... I find that I'm less stressed. I'm less cranky. I think best of all, is a new found appreciation of myself. I'm more content with my life now than I've been in a long time. I didn't realize exactly how much I'd been stressing about being single, till I stopped.... lol. Does that sound weird? I didn't realize how much I'd been looking till I stopped... I'm not even sure what I was looking for, but thinking back now, I find that the hunger and zeal I had for the Internet seemed to be fueled by a restlessness in me that I never realized I had... A feeling of discontent... It was almost like I was trying to fill some void...

I don't sit chatting on messenger for hours anymore. I don't sit replying mails and messages sent via facebook, myspace, or hi5 anymore. Nah... I find that I have more time for things I'd always thought myself too busy for. Even when I'm not reading, I'll sit on the couch with Jacob and just hang out. Half the time, he's not paying attention to me 'cause he's playing some game or concentrating on righting all the colors on the Rubiks cube I got him as a joke (Watching him try to solve that has got to be one of the most entertaining things under the sun... ), but it's still cool to be lying there instead of being stuck behind a screen.

Well... I guess that's it? I didn't plan to write this tonight. It was sort of a last minute/split second decision, so if it's a little scattered, I ask that you be a little tolerant... I guess till another time then, huh?