grounded

I enjoy word play as much as the next guy. Unless the next guy is Derrida, or someone who likes puns. So I guess when I say I like word play, I mean I like using words with more than one reading, particularly if more than one reading is intended. To wit: 

I am grounding myself this weekend. 

The word in play here is 'grounding.' As a mom/former mouthy teen, when I hear the word grounding I think restricted freedoms. Not that the BBs suffered from a lot of groundings - there wasn't much to ground them from, and their bedrooms had TVs and game modules, so ... not much deprivation achieved. 

Grounding - it's for your own good

Airline pilots also get grounded, which I suppose might be where the parenting version of the word comes from. Too tipsy. Unstable. A plane with mechanical issues. All good valid reasons for a grounding. 

And, I like the hippie meaning of the word. Being centred and balanced and connected to oneself and the world. 

And so, this weekend I am grounding myself. After I post this, I will not be online for 63 hours. Not even via my phone. I will not interrupt my celebration of BB2's birthday by posting pictures instantly to Facebook. I will not write on any of the 3 blogs I write or edit the blog I oversee. I will not tweet a single character, let alone 140, on any of the 4 Twitter accounts for which I am responsible. I will not even pin a single pin on Pinterest - and that's a hard one for me. 

The thing is, I keep thinking I'm peopled out. I'm tired. Irritable with a capital B. Sensitive in the most unhealthy way. But it's not that I'm peopled out; it's that I'm computer peopled out. So instead of wasting my time on the computer pretending that's a substitution for actually connecting with people I'm off to connect with people. Dinner tonight; a meeting for the charity I volunteer with tomorrow. One-on-one sunshine time with STG. Face-to-face conversations with my BBs. Sunday brunch with my men and Sunday fun with Ubercoach.(after which I will come back and announce what we've planned for the 30 day challenge!). And dear lord please a little quiet and alone time. 

Yes. I am grounded for the weekend. And I truly hope that when I come back on Monday I'll be grounded in the other sense as well.