Matt is... going 24 hours without his cell phone. Please write a letter if you need to contact him.

I awoke to my phone vibrating with the influx of texts and emails it usually gets in the morning. Shit! I had forgotten about my phone automatically turning on at 9:15 in the morning. I resisted the terribly strong urge to look and held down the red power button. It would be a long day.

Thursday morning was one I rather would not have gotten up for. Sleep deprived, slightly hung over, and feeling the beginnings of a cold, I twisted my body to the side and grabbed the half empty handle of Seagram’s Seven from under my bed. I might need this today. I put it back and slept off and on until about 12 when I forced myself to get up. I had made plans to pick up my girlfriend exactly at 2 when we would spend the day enjoying the beautiful outdoors. Today was cloudy, rainy, and dull though. It was more of a sit around and watch TV day. Yes, it would be a long day.

After showering and grabbing a quick bite, I hopped in my truck and didn’t enjoy any music on my 45 minute ride to my girlfriend’s house. I don’t remember the last time I had done such a thing. It just seemed natural to have some music playing.

This was only the second time I had been to her father’s house but I felt I had a good enough idea of how to get there that I’d be able to make it without using the Google Maps application I so conveniently have on my phone. Fortunately, my one wrong turn allowed me to arrive exactly at 2 instead of about 5 minutes earlier. I got out of my car and knocked on her door. Weird.

After hiking for about a minute and a half on a trail in Patapsco Valley State Park, we decided it was a bad day for hiking and turned around to go to my car. We drove to the city. We drove to Towson. We ate. We pondered what to do next. I really wanted to call someone. However, I found myself rather entertained for about an hour when we went to my favorite thrift store, Value Village.

I would have happily spent a longer time there had my girlfriend not been showing boredom, but it was time to do something else. We drove more. We drove to Michael’s. Not some guy named Michael, but that arts and crafts store. I’m tempted to leave this part out for the reader’s sake. I will. It was terribly unexciting, so we decided to return to nature.

There is a place I regularly go in the summer with my friends that we refer to as the Cliffs. It is located somewhere in the Loch Raven Reservoir and requires a little hike past a police shooting range, but is completely worth it. It isn’t technically legal, so the trail is often covered up, but I knew I’d be able to find my way. I was wrong about that, but there were over seven hours left without cell phones and TV, so we continued to hike in random directions, determined to find our way. About twenty minutes later, we saw water. It was beautiful.

Within ten minutes we arrived at the cliffs and took in the view. The sun set below the trees and I grabbed my whiskey to celebrate how far I had made it. We ate peach pie. Peach pie and whiskey. As the last light was fading, we took off. Surprisingly, it was much easier to find the way to my car with no light.

We arrived at my house around 9 something and played Scrabble. My girlfriend, used to playing Scrabble on Facebook, demanded she be able to use the dictionary to aid her. I felt this was cheating, but allowed it anyway. The night grew later as my score nearly tripled hers. It always feels good to win, but I was tired of Scrabble and hiking and lameness.

The clock struck 12. Oh wondrous technology! I turned on the TV and it soothed my jangled nerves. I didn’t even watch it but it was wonderful.

I blasted music as I drove 80 mph down 695 at 2 in the morning to her house. I got a cigar on the way back and listened to London Calling in its entirety. I was just glad it was over.

Looking back on the whole day, it really wasn’t so bad. The one thing I missed the most was music. I severely missed my cell phone, but it allowed me to spend a whole day uninterrupted with my girlfriend.