Three days of SLobriety!

. . . well now that I calculate, I guess it's only two days. Shoot.

Yep, I haven't logged on for two whole days. That's kind of a big deal for me because I'm what you'd call a Second Life Escapist, which means I use Second Life as a tool to ignore and avoid my real-life problems, issues and responsibilities.

And if you're a cynic or an outsider, please don't read that sentence as yet another person saying, "Look at this evil thing that Second Life does to people!" Trust me, if it weren't Second Life, I'd be doing the same thing with television, books, The Sims, and so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby.

The other day I took a long hard look at my life and once again vowed to try to get some balance in it . . . and not just ANY balance, but HABITUAL balance. During the past two days I've been forcing myself — and yes, sadly it has taken real effort — to incorporate exercise, face-to-face socializing, spirituality and productivity into my daily routine. On top of all that, add "cleaning" to the list because my room, office, closets and bathroom look like a tornado ripped through them.

As soon as these very necessary elements to my healthy existence become effortless and frequent, only then will the luxury of logging in and goofing around in Second Life feel like hard-earned recreation and not dysfunctional procrastination.

I REALLY need to accomplish this goal, which is why I keep aiming for it, because if it were up to me I'd stay cozied up on the couch all day in perpetual playtime mode. In fact, I pretty much have been doing just that for the past year-and-a-half.

But NO MORE! I'm tired of looking in the dictionary and seeing a picture of my face next to the word "sloth."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . However, I might need to break my abstinence streak tomorrow because I need to send all my chickens to that beautiful chicken coop in the sky. I may keep Buck Rogers and El Sopho, only because they're the only survivors of my first-generation brood. And shoot, if I'm gonna keep two roosters, I should also pick one hen.

Sigh.

Anyway, I don't want to log on in a couple of weeks to a bunch of dead chickens. So I'm probably going to do the deed tomorrow morning. Consider this post my written notice, Sion.

The turtles are going too.

And GAH, I also have a modeling job at SySy's that I'm proud to have. I love SySy Chapman's work and it's an honor to showcase her gorgeous creations. And please don't get me wrong — I didn't get that job because I'm an extraordinary AV beauty. I got that job because someone in one of my group chats said, "Would anyone like to be a SySy's model?" and I shoved and trampled about 12 other gals out of the way screaming, "ME!!!!"

So I'll be logging in occasionally to fulfill that obligation as well.

And of course there are my friends. I need to know how they're doing!

Ha HAAAAAA! My God, it's so hard to cut or even loosen the mental and emotional ties to this place, huh?

All that aside, two events today almost made me cop out of this whole plan anyway.

1. I looked at the fashion feeds, saw something enticing, squealed, "I WANT THAT!" and almost logged in to get it. It leads me back to some advice I tried to give many posts back when I was once again trying to wean myself off my SL vice: Don't read SL blogs or feeds if you're trying to be SLelibate!

As an antidote, I grabbed an Elle magazine, quickly spotted something enticing, squealed, "I WANT THAT!" and sent out a few more resumes in the hopes that maybe someday I could afford to buy it.

2. I got a dirty look from my three-year-old niece today. (Face-to-face socializing! Check!) She came over to my house with a Barbie who looked like she'd been around the block a few times. Her hair was all jacked up. Her makeup looked smeared. And she was wearing strappy do-me stilettos that complemented a gold sequined dress with a slit up the front that came dangerously close to flashing her hooha to Ken and anyone else who might be checking her out. (I'm talking about Barbie, not my niece.)

I said, "Wow, it looks like your Barbie had a rough night out on the town last night!"

That comment didn't go over very well with my niece, who hopefully didn't understand what it meant anyway. She definitely didn't like the word "rough" as it pertained to Barbie though, so she proceeded to grab the doll from me and scream at the top of her lungs.

Sheesh.

But anyway, after that episode, I TOTALLY wanted to log on and recreate Barbie's walk-of-shame look with my AV.

I resisted. But when I finally earn a guilt-free SL existence, that's totally going to be my next inworld mission.

Speaking of slut struts, DAMN, what are they trying to do to little girls with these trashy, trashy Barbies these days? In my day (rocks in rocking chair thoughtfully), you got instant popularity status if you had the Yellow Rose of Texas Barbie. She wore a yellow polyester pantsuit, had huge curly hair and a yellow rose tied around her neck with a sheer yellow scarf.

I actually got caught up in a wave of nostalgia tonight and tried to find her on eBay or anywhere else online.

I failed miserably.

[Insert snappy blog post ending here.]