How technology is killing us

Okay, so maybe it's not killing us, but it surely it is decreasing our quality of life.  Don't get me wrong, I know that there are an infinite number of ways that technology helps us and improves our day to day life.  It's those other moments that you see all of the time.  The ones where someone is completely oblivious to the world around them because all that they see is their phone. Or maybe you don't see these moments.  Maybe you, too, miss it all because you are too busy looking at your phone.  Maybe you missed that beautiful bird that flew by or that perfect moment when the sun set because you were checking the game score on your phone.  Did you see that loving glance from your spouse or your daughter was doing her first perfect cartwheel or were you too occupied checking Facebook?  Or maybe there is practically a circus going on around you but you miss it all because you are too busy texting?  

Lisa and I went trapezing a few weeks ago.  It was a Friday night and it was busy.  There were all kinds of classes and practices happening.  While waiting for my next chance to climb the ladder and fly I looked over at my other classmates.  Five out of six of them were on their phones.  With all of this awesomeness going on around them, they were on their PHONES!  Don't get my wrong, I get it.  When I am walking out of work in the morning my phone feels like an itch in my pocket.  It just feels like I should be doing something with it!  Since when do I need something else to occupy me other than just walking out of work?  But I have to actively NOT pull my phone out to mess with it.  The same thing happens at home with my I-pad.  I want to glance at it in the morning while I eat breakfast, but I am sitting at the table with my kids.  Although everyone may be in a silent early morning stupor, I should just "be" with them.  If I'm looking at my I-pad I might miss Laurel's sweet smile across the table or giggling with Sierra when she dribbles her milk.  And to think that all of my classmates missed this: 

I'm probably okay with the fact that they missed this!

But I was pretty stinkin' impressed with this...

And Lisa was fairly impressed with this!

The grand finale!

Next time you feel that itch, try to resist it.  You never know what you might see!

Flying high!

Ever since I heard it mentioned over a year ago I knew that I had to do this:  Trapeze School!  Who could NOT want to do this?!  And it is right in my own backyard in DC... how did I get so lucky?!  I talked my adventure buddy, Lisa, into doing it with me.  We headed up early in case of traffic and had enough time to walk down on the Navy pier.  The class was 2 hours long.  I had figured they would teach us for an hour or so and then we'd get to fly a couple of times.  Nope... they talked for about 10 minutes and then we got going!  There were 10 students in the class and we all went 6-8 times.  It was a blast!  The initial jumping off the platform and then letting go of the bar to dangle by my knees was scary, but after that it was all adrenaline!  By the end of class I had done a flip dismount and was caught by one of the teachers.  Of course, we signed up for two more classes!

Relaxing before class

Lisa went first

I'm ready to go!

and... let go!

"I gotcha"

Lisa finally lets go!