I took a short trip to Idyllwild with my family this past weekend. I planned the trip to celebrate the birthdays of my daughter and Kevin, + our anniversary.

I made everyone (2 kids, 2 adults) put their devices away when I noticed the trip was turning into People Being on Their Devices in a Different Location Vacation. I made them stay off their devices for the rest of the trip, because I’m the boss of the world.

At first there was a lot of complaining about not having anything to do with no devices allowed. I told them I used to draw when I had nothing to do. Then my kids both started drawing stuff and by the end of the trip, completely blew our minds with their drawings. Then I felt like an idiot for letting the screen time thing get so bad, they could be working in animation be unemployed by now.

Despite the no-device-surprise, the trip was great. We met the mayor, a dog named Max. He is a very good mayor and a good boy.

We tried some great restaurants, put together a few jigsaw puzzles, watched some Simpsons, & went in the hot tub as much as possible until the bees came around to get us out.

It was rad to take a break from everyone/everything in a town where they elected a dog as the mayor. How do we get a dog mayor? Max gave my kids something exciting to tell their friends and relatives about. He gave us all something to be excited about. My kids said they think we should make a cat the president, next.

I hope we can all break free from these damn dirty algorithms. I hope we can all have a dog mayor one day, and a cat president, too.

—Your Friend,

Elizabeth