I'll take some Tapshoes with a Side of Pancakes, please

Mister Tapshoes brimming over with love.

And the Great Mister Shortstack.

My heart swells.

How I miss you! I can explain...

My laptop's broked down. It was having problems and then I think they were fixed and they, in fact, might be, but then the LED blew, leaving only a black screen in its wake. Stupid LED. As if 5+ years is an acceptable lifespan. (Really? It is? Dang.)

So there you go, the reason why I haven't posted. Which is too bad because now would be a fabulous time to write and write to my heart's content. The reason for this is the enormous amount of free-time I now find in the evenings since my roommate challenged me to go for ONE MONTH WITHOUT WATCHING TELEVISION. Let's forget for a second how cool this makes me sound and move on to my reaction to his challenge: horror. Said horror should have signled that I do, in fact, have a problem with the boob tube. Its soft glow, its funny little people making jokes, its narration of lions laying in a savannah (and right when I began to use TV for educational purposes...gah.). At first I flat out refused. I simply can't do that. Not watch TV? But I loooove TV...

I awoke the next morning with the absurdity of his suggestion still ringing in my ears. On the drive home from work that same day, I told my friend A about it who was equally taken aback. Then we proceeded to talk and laugh for the next 20 minutes about all of our favorite programs. Sigh, at least she understands television's important role in one's life even if my grad-school-for-English roommate, who's all into "books" and "reading" and "writing" doesn't. When you say Dylan, he thinks Dylan Thomas. The man ain't got no cultchah.

So, the rest of the ride home got me thinking, could I, a woman without TiVo, go for an entire month doing something other than seeing who the Bachelor picks, seeing how Pam feels when Jim returns to the Scranton office--with a new lady in tow? Could I manage to end my evenings without seeing episodes of Sex and the City or Friends for the millionth time? And what about Colbert? Sweet, sweet Colbert? Won't he miss me?

Through the dizzying sadness I felt a tiny glimmer of resolve forming, one that grew and grew, despite the fact that the growing romance between Lorelei and Rory's dad--a thing that took me more than a couple episodes to support (not that that Luke was any good for her)--was going to be featured in less than an hour. I thought of the great books I was reading and hadn't seemed to reach the end of; the formidable stack of books on my bedside table that still awaited my attention. I thought of going to bed at a reasonable hour, a thing that the soft glow and funny people seemed, without fail, to waylay. I thought, hmmm, maybe cold turkey's the way to go. It worked with quitting smoking all those years back...

So, I got home and accepted his offer. And I hate it. I miss TV. It hurts the most on Monday and Thursdays. The challenge allows me to go to movies, but movies cannot be viewed here in the apartment. I warned that I'd be bugging him to use his computer (which I am on now) A LOT more. Turns out that that hasn't really happened.

Most evenings now look like this: music on, candle burning, me reading or the two of us talking. The living room feels much better this way. And I am moving through the book stack. And going to bed on time.

I don't know what this will mean for me and my old flame, TV. When the month ends--at 7:58 pm on Dec. 14--will I rush to it with open arms, kisses and promises to never stray again? Probably.

I voted today

Oh yes I did.