redefining necessity

As I mentally prepare for my move back to Seattle, I’ve been busy trying to plan out a budget that will provide for all the major essentials: food, retirement contributions, savings, utilities, cable, x-box subscription, high speed internet, and of course, a $120/month mobile-data plan.

Say what?

It struck me oddly funny that I was spending time planning for things that I had gone for over a year and a half without in perfect happiness. I had no GPS-enabled phone, yet somehow managed to navigate my way around completely foreign places. For three months I had cable that transmitted only horrible Thai-language soap operas, so I read tons of books instead. Instead of trying to become an expert at Guitar Hero, I decided to try and learn the real thing, buying my first guitar. Of all these things I was immensely proud; yet, in the course of returning back to the states, these things that I had thought I rid myself of slowly came back into my life, at the cost of neglecting my once cherished escapes – my faithful camera, my second-hand books, and my hard-won guitar-string calluses (notice, I make no mention to any skills in this area).

And frankly, I’d probably have no problem with it – except that now that I’m resuming my mortgage, I can’t really afford these “new” things.

It wasn’t so long ago – maybe 8, 9 years? – when we all started to cancel our home phone lines for a cell-phone only existence. The simplicity of a cell phone won out over the security of an always-on communication life-line. Since then, we’ve added more and more tethers to our homes in the form of digital cable and high speed internet. The thing is, these tethers really don’t give you anything you can’t easily get anywhere else - I get free email at work, isn’t that enough? Didn’t I used to do my photo editing and uploading  in coffee shops? Do I really need to buy music and rent movies online when I live blocks away from brick-and-mortar-stores who would love to have my business?

So while I welcome each one of you to come and hang out at the Casbah, you should know ahead of time that it’s going to be a cable/internet-free household (thank goodness for digital broadcasting, eh?).