Hulu temptations running high after emotionally draining first day of school: it doesn’t get easier a) dropping the children off at school for their first day and completely entrusting them to someone else’s care and b) making difficult choices about my own academic future on my own first day of the semester. I have noticed that when I am emotionally or mentally tired TV serves to numb and quiet the over-fired synapses of my brain.

The last week and a half have been temptation free. Visiting family and in-laws the television was on but with nothing of interest and it was easy to not watch. I finished two whole books (A House for Mr. Biswas and Wicked) and have begun a third in earnest (old standby fave: The Scarlet Letter). After a full ten days of traveling and being away from home I picked up some burritos from our favorite restaurant and we all curled up on the couch and watched the Luc Besson (of my favorite movie: The Fifth Element) movie: Arthur and the Invisibles. It was perfect and while I’ve strayed from the larger goal I’m reconnecting with the purposes movies (perhaps not so much TV) serve: to bring us together in a shared experience, leave us hopeful and reminded of what we’re good for. I loved it and have recently discovered Tim Burton is doing Alice in Wonderland to come out in 2010: be still my beating heart.

So I had this grand plan of rereading one of the longest novels on my bookshelves, The Historian. Didn’t happen; after the first couple of chapters I realized that this needs to be read when it’s cold outside and gets dark before 5pm. No worries, there was plenty going on this weekend to serve as a diversion – my hens somehow got out of their coop three(!) times last night during the thunderstorm. I think it’s safe to say that my free time for the rest of the week has been snatched up by this new development in learning how to keep chickens.

I always end up having big internal debates in grocery stores. Tonight I had my usual just-got-off-work-late-haven’t-had-dinner-yet-and-I-want-sushi hankering. I walked to the store with the resolve to ONLY get the expensive sushi if they had the exact one I wanted. They had one left! I grabbed it and made my way to check out. I scanned my VIC card and was about to scan my dinner when indecision struck. It’s awfully expensive. Plus I had the brilliant idea at work to make a big pot of veggie chili for work this week. But I really want sushi. But if I spend $6 on this it will get me one meal, but if I spend $12 on chili stuff it will make me 4 to 5. But I totally have beer at home and could realize last week’s desire of beer and sushi. OR I could listen to music, drink my beer, and cook a bit pot of chili. That’s what I ended up doing. It’s simmering on the stove now. Mmmmmmm. I have to say the decision was more about sticking to my budget than it was about not being able to watch TV, but that definitely swayed it. I would have had to find an activity to engage in while I ate my pre-packaged dinner, while cooking and listening to music is it’s own activity (one that I happen to enjoy quite a bit).

Excuse me while I go stir my lunches for the week.

I am sitting on the couch after a long day of work with a beer and the craving for a good movie. However I am absolutely not going to watch a movie. Instead I’m going to finish this here beer and head to bed. I have an early start and a long day tomorrow, so it’s a good thing I have an excuse to not watch TV. I’ll probably kill some of my tedious book though.

I just started re-reading The Historian…that should keep me busy long past the end of August!

No TV temptations the last few days. Currently trudging through a tedious book. I feel I should find something more interesting to read so that when temptation does strike I can have a more tempting option.

When I was out running this afternoon I saw a guy wearing a backpack with one of those chest straps and he had said chest strap fastened and suddenly all I could think about was that SNL skit about the Hyper-Hypo kid who eats chocolate and freaks out and pulls the jungle gym out of the ground and drags it behind him as he runs away…it is killing me not to look for that video online.

I completely failed to not watch things on the internet. I watched the medley of Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. It was just under nine minutes and completely worth it.

Also, do music videos count? The quickest way to listen to a song you hear a snippet of is to google the lyrics then watch the video on YouTube– apparently I do this a lot.

Yep, I’ve banned myself from watching anything on the internet – no Guild, no Flight of the Conchords. Twenty days and counting.