Tuesday, July 31, 2007

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

I was reading Tessie's blog today and of course laughing my hiney off when I got to thinking...... My two best college friends and I are way different, at least when it comes to the brain-sucking machine known as television. Tess talked about our other friend Carla (not a blogger, yet) and their love of TV, and believe me, love is an understatement. I can remember in college, I would go over to Tess's apt. (we lived across the courtyard from each other) and I knew exactly where she would be on a Saturday afternoon (or any afternoon for that matter), in her PJ pants watching TV with the dead ivy hanging from the ceiling.

Not me, I am a doer, I do not sit still for long at all. Even when the TV is on, I am not just sitting and watching it, I am ironing (I know, totally June Cleaver) or cleaning or doing something. I just can't stand to just sit there (another piece of evidence for my self-diagnosis of OCD). Tessie and Carla on the other hand, could win for marathon TV watching, not saying that they are lazy, but they have no problem just sitting there for hours watching TV. When the three of us get together, they go on and on about there shows and I just listen and absorb, which catches me up to the rest of the world.

I am not really sure where my lack of obsession with TV comes from, maybe it is because my parents (mainly my dad) wouldn't let us watch TV when we were kids. We could watch 1 hour a night and that was IF our homework was done. And what we watched on TV was definitely monitored. Part of me is really glad that I don't like TV, because it can suck you in, for evidence of this, see Tessie's list of shows she is currently watching. I don't even know what DVR season pass is! When we moved, our new satellite company gave us two DVRs, we have maybe 10 things on it right now, and we are just figuring out the whole pause TV so you can skip the commercials thing (I kind of like commercials). My hubby likes TV, he definitely watches it more than I do, but unfortunately it is mainly the hunting channel, especially this time of year. Have you ever watched anything more boring than two guys in a deer stand? Oh wait, maybe paint drying.

4 comments:

Tess said...

Oh, it's not just TV, I could sit for hours doing any number of things (reading, eating, watching movies, etc.). I just don't have that little voice like you do telling me to DO SOMETHING DO SOMETHING DO SOMETHING all the time.

One thing about TV for us is that we think of it as something that we do and enjoy together, so in some ways we consider it "couple" time. We discuss shows together, and plan snacks, etc. BUT, I would have to bail if he ever tuned in to watch HUNTING. SERIOUSLY, what the...?

Anonymous said...

There were a few awful weeks in my house where the hunting channel seemed to keep popping up whenever I left the room. Fortunately, that died out quickly. :-)

TV (and to echo Tess - reading, movies, etc) is my downtime and chance to regroup, where I can just relax and destress. TV is couple time for us too, watching all sorts of sports (Mike doesn't know how lucky he is) and the few shows we both enjoy. The DVR is best thing ever, not only because I can record all the awesome Food network shows that play during the day and but because we can watch our shows when we want, so we can truly relax and watch when we do have time, instead of planning our lives around TV.

Erin said...

Tess, can you kick that little voice's bum for me? It would be nice to sit and relax for once. I actually do take time to read, and scrapbook of course. That is not couple time for us. Sometimes we watch movies, but couple time is usually doing something, working in the yard, watching a movie, or (dare I admit this) hunting!

Anonymous said...

There are researchers who have done brain scans of people watching t.v. and their brain activity is tha same as a person who is doing drugs. The t.v. gives your brain the same stimuli as dope. No wonder we can sit for hours just mindlessly watching. I wonder if there is a difference if you are watching how-to or informational programing?