I mentioned earlier that I have some familiarity with people who don’t want presents. My husband is a minimalist and finding a gift that he will appreciate is tricky because he specifically doesn’t want things. I try think of other ways that I can make my love tangible.
This year, I deep cleaned the apartment while he was at work, so he came home to a shiny floor and the scent of Murphy’s Oil Soap.
I’m also giving him 24-hours without internet. Since he was at work on his actual birthday, we’re doing the internet free thing today. This is, in fact, an auto-post that I schedule to go live since the wifi is turned off at the router at the time that you are reading this.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
Do you ever take a vacation from the internet?
While I do have Internet on a lot, even when my kids are up, since it’s warming up where I am and we don’t own I Phones, we have started “going dark” as far as the Internet goes more and more.
It’s nice, actually.
Not voluntarily. That sounds dangerous. I do cut down about once a month and whenever we’re visiting with my husband’s family to only checking my email and Facebook chats once a day.
Happiest Of Birthdays To Rob. This Is A Gift I’m Sure He’ll Love.
Give Him My Best On Sunday.
Happy Birthday Rob. We know you will
appreciate these loving ‘gifts’ so kindly
arranged for you by your devoted spouse,
Mary!
Curiously, Joe Hill (who schedules days off the Internet several times a month) and John Scalzi have also chosen today to be off the Net.
Maybe the stars are aligned for this….
Anndd… I just went on Twitter and fiund tweets from both. Perhaps the stars have changed alignment?
*found.
At conventions, I do without the Internet. Real people instead!
I think I may ask the husband for this. Or the cleaning.
It helps that I don’t have a smart phone, so if I’m out of the house, I am by default off the Internet. (I can text, but it’s very clunky.)
That said, yes, I’ve done Internet vacations before — to a certain extent. I’m a freelancer, and all my work comes in through e-mail, but if I need to focus on work I’ll often turn my wireless off because the Lure of the ‘Net is very strong. 🙂 I have taken vacations from Facebook, Tumblr, et al. before (I quit Twitter entirely because I constantly felt like I should keep up) and found them very creative and productive.
I had a friend come to visit Easter weekend, which resulted in my being offline for 32 hours.
On minimalist gifting…
Another good gift for a minimalist is donating to a charity he/she is really passionate about, but you’re not. It says you care about his/her ideals. The key is that it has to be in an area that you yourself couldn’t care less about, because then it is more of a selfless and appreciative gesture. It also doesn’t contribute to clutter.
This has been a winning gift for several b-days and Christmases for my minimalist girlfriend for the above reasons. But you can only do it every once in a while, or else it loses its meaning.