Joining the Ranks

Most of you who know us, know that we don't have t.v.
Well....we HAVE a t.v., but it's not hooked up to anything. And it's been that way for about 3 years now. No Grey's Anatomy, no American Idol, no Sports Center, no Brady Bunch marathons. That said, I think we're still pretty hip to American culture and media, via the internet - but we've just chosen not to have cable because in our first few years of marriage when we DID have it - we were junkies. Just like every other American in the U.S. We both grew up in homes where the tv was the nightly "family time" and it was flipped on at 7pm and stayed on until 11. The week revolved around it, everyone was excited about it. "Oh, it's Thursday night - Perry Mason comes on at 8:00. Let's get home and watch it."

And for us... Steve would walk home from work and turn on the tv to watch ESPN. 1-year old Owen would be glued to Sesame Street by 8am. I would stay up until midnight just because Leno was on...but really, did I NEED to watch Leno?? Of course not. We decided to go without tv for awhile and attempt to improve our quality of life. And it did. We went on walks, we played with our kids more, the constant noise of television was NOT a part of our life and it was nice. We would go to visit family and I'd feel like I was going to pull my hair out - people talking, kids playing, sports blasting from the tv (or worse yet, Noggin and that basted Dora the Explorer's highly annoying voice ringing out from the television). The noise overwhelmed me.

So...the past few months we've both been jones'n for some tv again. There are times in the evening where I'm burnt out from working on photo shoots, or just tired from being pregnant (and huge) and I'd think how nice it would be to sit in front of the tv with a coffee and veg out for an hour or so. And with the tornadoes that blasted through our area a few months back, it would've been nice to have been able to flip on the tv and see when would be a good time to head for the closet for safety (although the radio and the internet did ok, tv would've been easier). Steve-o, of course, has always missed ESPN -- I *haven't* missed having sportscenter on 24/7.

Anyway....the cable guy came today. Installed cable.
I think I'll enjoy it. I'm hoping I won't regret it. We'll see how it goes over the next few months....hopefully by now we can be mature enough to turn that boob tube off for most of the day and it won't become an addiction for us again. Because if so....it's outta here!!
Any addictions out there?? Must be home in time for Dancing with the Stars?? Can't live without your daily fix of Emeril? Would go into seizures if you missed a single episode of Cribs?? Fess up...tell me what's got you hooked.
So I can stay far, far away from it.