Maybe My Mom Was Right

Growing up I was not allowed to watch television. I know, the humanity. As a child I really didn't know any different. I went to an all girls Catholic school so we wore uniforms. No body wore trendy clothes such as t-shirts featuring the boys from "New Kids on the Block" a band I only became familiar with in high school. I never really worried about not being able to watch t.v. Sometimes I would go over to my friend Bo's house and we would watch MacGuyver and then play MacGuyver in the back yard as soon as it was over. I wasn't aware growing up of all the television gold I was missing.

It is now that I am an adult that I am starting to realize how in the dark I am when it comes to pop culture from the 80s and 90s. I am the last person you want on your team playing trivial pursuit or catchphrase when the question pertains to anything entertainment related. During a recent game of catchphrase my clue was "Fraggle Rock" I was completely lost. However, if it is a question about books I'm the first to shout out an answer. Reading was my television, and I was a feign. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but when you read as much as I did you become quite good at it. I could put away books by Lois Lowry, Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, Edward Eager, Norton Juster, and a handful of others in just a couple of days as a kid, and now as an adult I often used to find myself reading a book in just a couple of hours if I had the free time.

Our first month out here Julia and I didn't have a television because it was coming in my car which I shipped from DC and ended up being a month late. Finally it arrived and now we have cable.
I am officially addicted. There is so much television out there I can barely tear myself away. I record everything and anything. From cooking shows, to comedy shows, to old sitcoms that ended before I was born.
I recently watched "Whose the Boss?" for the first time, and spent about 15 minutes grilling Julia on the details of the show. "You mean she hired a MALE MAID?!" "HOW SOON DO THE KIDS START HOOKING UP WITH EACH OTHER?" I shouted over the cheesy opening credits. I have no concept of a family sitcom because most of the shows I watch are recent ones where the entire story line revolves around drug using, sexually mature, corrupted youth.
I'm somewhat used to watching network television but cable is a whole new world to me. I cant put down the remote. I mastered it in under a day, I can page through hundreds of channels in seconds, if I even chose to watch something I haven't pre-recorded or isn't "On Demand". My vocabulary as entirely changed. I now know what "page up and page down" mean, what DVR, and On Demand mean. I had absolutely no regret when we go our cable bill and I realized I was spending more on cable that month then groceries.

I used to fall asleep like this:



Now I fall asleep to this: