3 years ago, I gave up my greatest weakness. In order to get somewhere you have never been before, you have to do things that you have never done before. Right? So, I gave up cable. Prior to me deciding to make this change, I really sat down and got honest with myself and figured out where my weaknesses were. I knew that as soon as the t.v. went on, I hit the fridge or cabinet at the first and every commercial break after that. Getting rid of cable meant I was going to be missing a lot, but having cable and being fat meant I was missing out on a lot more.
I joined a gym with WiFi and got Netflix. Problem solved'ish. If I wanted to watch a movie, I needed to be on the elliptical. I was not cutting myself off completely, I was putting myself in a winning position over this challenge. It worked. Sure, I was looked at like a lepper when I told people that I had never heard of Sons of Anarchy or Breaking Bad, but it was a fixable problem. Nothing the little search bar and good cardio session couldn't fix. A year ago, my new roommate wanted cable when she moved in. I proudly declined to have it in my room. I was cured of my bad habit. After it was installed, I watched it once in a while in the living room, but was perfectly good without it. I would be in the house alone for hours and forget that the option to turn it on was there. Often, I would turn it on finding that the t.v. was still tuned to the last channel that I watched weeks earlier. Sure, I binge watched a series or two on Netflix, but the television was no longer part of my day to day life. I really believed that the decision, although unheard of in any year after 1990, was one of the best decisions that I made in planning my attack against obesity. But... it isn't completely without its challenges. For example, dating.
Recently, I have found that dating a guy who can't survive without t.v. is quite a challenge. When my roommate moved out, knowing that Eric and I we were making plans to live together, I asked him to entertain the idea of just skipping on cable. It sounded like a good idea in my head. Perhaps I was way overestimating my own ability to keep him entertained. He actually looked at me with two very confused eyes and said, "What are we supposed to do without it?". I mean, I guess I understand that I am the oddball here, not him. I have a closet full of games, lots of laundry and very little free time on my hands. As he was spending countless hours unsuccessfully fighting a feud with Comcast over billing and package details, I found myself withdrawing from the process. I started off wanting to be a part of it with him. It was something WE were going to have in OUR house so it made sense that we did it as a team. I just didn't see the point though. I admit that I have watched more cable in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 2 years. That is how he relaxes and if I wanna spend time with him, I gotta find a way to make room in my relationship for the television. The more issues he had though, the more I hated it. The more frustrated he got, the more he seemed to crave watching a show or movie from start to finish without a box blip or network issue. Last night, he asked if I could move around my schedule to wait for Comcast to come fix something else this afternoon. My first thought was not one that I want to put in writing. My second thought was that it was the least that I could do after he had made several trips to the Comcast office and had taken off of work to do it. *Pause: He did what? Huh?* Take time off of work for T.V.? I won't ask him to take off of work for a family affair, but for cable it is okay. Cable > Family? Perhaps it is not even fair for me to make that sort of allegation. Again, I have to remind myself that I know that I am the oddball here.
This morning, I almost put the cable box in the blender. Eric had gotten up this morning and headed right to the television as he does every morning. Problem? No, not for 99% of America. It bothered me for some reason, and I told him. Am I being to harsh on him or will this prove to be a real issue one day? I suppose time will tell. Good golly, now I am wondering what sort of things he would be blogging about if he had a chance to blog about relationship issues. I am sure he is learning to cope with my need to go to Target on a daily basis. I mean, I know there is something wrong with the frequency. In my defense, I don't always buy something. Maybe if I would sit down and watch t.v. once in a while, I wouldn't need to entertain myself by walking around the store for hours on end. Ugghh. I am sure they make a show on Lifetime or T.L.C. about these sort of struggles. Blah.
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