In T minus 6 days, I will officially be a Mrs. —a married woman on her honeymoon. With visions of my beautiful, awesome, fun, night to remember forever (ok, you get the idea) wedding dancing in my head, I’ll be gloriously lounging in a striped beach chair, slurping a cocktail with an umbrella and basking in some much-needed sun.
A while back, I wrote a blog post about the Chick Lit Checklist for my honeymoon. And recently, as I dug my passport out of the drawer and consulted my wedding bible, The Knot Book of Wedding Lists honeymoon packing list to make sure I had my sunscreen, camera and, um, diarrhea medicine, I started thinking: How connected to the “real world” should we be? And if we remain “tethered” to outside sources, does that mean we’ll be less connected to each other? After all, when was the last time we got away for some alone time? (Ok it was only forty-five days ago, but who’s counting!)
Shouldn’t we make the most of this trip to paradise? It doesn’t mean I want to sit and stare into his eyes all night or be that couple who puts their hands in the back pocket of their partner’s linen pants and strolls along the beach for hours on end (no offense honey, but there are a lot more exciting things we can do with our time *wink* *wink*). I want to make the most of our time together and make sure it will be a honeymoon to remember. No pressure!
So the million-dollar question is: how much should we be available to the outside? I mean, we’ll obviously have work and family we’ll need to check in on back home, but in addition to that, how much should we be checking our crackberries and iPhones? When I casually brought the subject up with my fiancé and suggested we come up with a schedule for how often we “check,” he gently reminded me that the same applies for my incessant need to be on Facebook.
Gulp. Hadn’t anticipated that.
“But honey,” I stammered. “Facebook is different. Don’t you want me to be able to post pics and update our friends and family on our amazing honeymoon? (Insert pouty expression from me and blank stare from him.)
“Ok….Um, how about Twitter?” I added. (Insert another even blanker stare from him.)
Maybe he’s right. I don’t need to be on Facebook or Twitter…that much. It’s more important to me to live in the moment. Absorb the details of my honeymoon. Connect with my husband. And read. Reading I won’t be able to give up and it wasn’t even up for debate (he’s a reader, too, so we’ve agreed on this).
I have big plans to re-read Emily Giffin’s Heart of the Matter. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy and in my opinion, it’s her best book yet. I started and finished it on my four-hour flight out to Cali last week and still had time to spare before we landed. I’m also going to bring The Help by Kathryn Stockett and also plan to borrow my fiance’s copy of Look Again by Lisa Scottoline.
And you never know, I might even be able to “sneak” a Facebook status report to let you all know how I’m doing… (Shhhh!)
What's your opinion? How connected should you be when you're on vacation?
Lisa Steinke, along with her best friend Liz Fenton, co-authored the chick lit novel I’ll Have Who She’s Having and co-created the popular Chick Lit blog, Chick Lit is Not Dead.
Hi, Lisa..Congratulations!
I say, play it by ear, or whatever body part you have on hand 
I agree with TiggerBear. It's time to soak in and enjoy the now, for the two of you. Something to dream and reminisce about in the future, when your time fly's out the window. If you're bothering to inform everyone else what you're doing, you'll miss the sunrises and sunsets! If reading is what you two do, as part of your regular day, than don't give that up! I take it you'll be on a beach somewhere?....Holding hands and holding a book, mission accomplished! Just have fun! That's all you need to think about!
Kathy
