Going Cold Turkey.....

I am embarrassed to have to write this post.

I have gone cold turkey from playing a stupid GAME on the computer. And it's momentous enough that I'm writing about it.

Katydid got me playing this particular game (sort of like Farmville, from what I understand) in which one plants crops, tends animals, makes and sells products, loads boat shipments with some of those products, and generally wastes about as much time as it is possible to waste doing something senseless.

I knew I was spending too much time playing this game. I haven't finished the book I'm reading. I haven't worked on my quilt. I hadn't ridden my bike in 22 DAYS until today. Yeah, it was that serious. (It's not the ONLY reason I hadn't been on my bike, but it can't be entirely coincidental either.)

I got up at 4:30 and 5:00 AM to play this game. Sure, I told myself I was already awake and I may as well get up, but the painful truth is that I wanted to see if I could get that boat loaded completely before it sailed, thus earning some random stars, some pretend coins, and a voucher or two. (Which can only be traded for pets, which have to be FED and AWAKENED.)

I mentioned in a previous blog post that I found myself spending REAL money on this game, paying to get "diamonds" that I could use for things I didn't have, or to speed up a process that was going to take too long to get the #$!*#$ products on the #!$*#*! boat.

It's not like I spent the grocery money or anything, and the $17 I spent isn't going to force me out of retirement. It was the thought that something mindless had taken over my mind.

I wasn't rude enough to play the game on my phone when Hubby and I went out to eat, but what was the harm in checking on my chickens when Hubby went to the bathroom?

I didn't neglect my volunteer work, and what was the harm in seeing if the pigs had produced the bacon I needed, as long as it only took a second?

I had all that time to kill in various clinics, so what was the big deal?

I really wrestled with myself about this issue. On one hand, it is harmless, free (**ahem ahem**) fun. On the other hand...there are a billion other things I can be doing with my time and energy.

And I know how I am. It wasn't enough for me to tell myself, "I'm going to stop playing this silly game." No, I had to sell off all my products until my barn was completely empty, then I deleted the game from my iPad. And my iPhone.

It felt so ... liberating.

I knew it was the right thing to do when Hubby said, "I'll be happy to get my wife back."