To All My Old Friends Out There In TV Land

I’ve seen a lot of blogs lately that read like personalized TV Guides. Television is so much a part of our lives, many of us schedule our lives around when [insert favorite television show name here] airs. We live our life in 12-minute segments from one commercial to the next. I’ve been told “Wait until a commercial.” Or “I’ll call you back during the commercial.”

One blogger confessed to spending an entire Sunday afternoon surfing the internet researching when her favorite TV shows were airing new episodes. Her blog contains 600 words detailing what shows she watches, what shows she Tivos, and how she finds time during the week to watch those shows. I counted 30+ shows that she and her husband watch each week.

According to a 1998 A.C. Neilsen Company national survey the average American watches 3.75 hours of television each day! The average number of hours the TV set is on during the day: seven hours, 12 minutes.

Another blogger apparently has been taping the soap opera One Life To Live for 20 years and watching five hours every Thursday evening after ER. I admire that kind of dedication. She keeps up better with her TV family than I do with my real, live, breathing family. I don’t spend that much time each week phoning, emailing, or spending time with my friends and family. (In all honesty she probably doesn’t have much time to devote to her extended family either.)

Case in point, according to the 1998 report, the number of minutes per week most children spend watching TV is 1,197; while the number of minutes per week most parents talk with their children is 38.

Then there are those abnormal Americans who do not watch any television and build relationships with each other – not just during commercials. I have a friend who recently got rid of the box completely. He and his wife take walks together now and spend each evening conversing, playing games, and reading with their three children.

One blogger was debating on whether to include Leverage in her already hectic television schedule for the new year. Taking on a new show is like starting a new relationship – we chose our friends carefully because we want them to be around and not just fair-weather friends. Sometimes the relationship ends all too abruptly and our newfound friends drop off the face of the planet never to be heard from again.

I’ve been burned a few times by my television friends who didn’t stay around for the long haul. Jericho. New Amsterdam. Journeyman. And my long lost friends on Soap. I am very selective now; I can’t afford to invest too much time in a relationship that isn’t going to pan out for me. My line up includes Survivor. Project Runway. America’s Next Top Model. Top Chef. Lost. I have no room in my life for other shows. I can’t afford to get hurt.

I have more to say on the subject, but it will have to wait until the next commercial. My show’s on.

Movie Night

This week we saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It was the best 50 cent movie so far...the characters had the same on-screen chemistry as that of the popular 1930's film characters Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man series. Cute, huh?

In the seat next to Kara's were three abandoned movie posters. Someone had forgotten them in the theater - or just lost interest.

Thanksgiving 2007.

Here are three of my favorite girls. Kara. Amber. Maggie. It's hard to believe this was a year ago. Can you believe everything that's happened over the course of a year?

Thankfulista

Mother on the left, her life-long friend
Darlene Boyd, Lily Noble and Darlene's mother.

The house on 14th Street in Lawton, Okla. where we grew up.

I'm thankful that I was able to spent time with the people with whom I wanted to spend time...my family. We spend so much of our lives at work, we develop pseudo-families than we spend more time with than our actual blood relatives.

As we observe every year, we gathered at my sister Molly's house in Hurst, Texas. One of my favorite things to do is cook Thanksgiving dinner with her. She's been my big sister for 46 years and my best friend for as many years. Working with her in the kitchen is effortless.

I'm especially thankful that I was able to travel to Oklahoma for my father's 80th birthday last weekend. My dad is in the later stages of Alzheimer's and doesn't remember that he's married to my mother; they will celebrate their 60th anniversary in April '09. He also does not remember that from that union he has three daughters, a son, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. But somehow that's okay; he still seems to enjoy our company.

I'm thankful that he was a photo buff and took loads of pictures of my sisters and me - so I can remember for the both of us.

Movie Night

My daughter and I go to the 5o cent movie every Tuesday. It's become a fun tradition; a treat which I enjoy, not only because it's cheap, but I love movies, popcorn, and my daughter.

With the 50 cent movie, you never know what you're going to get. Our criteria is strict: it has to start between 4:40 and 5:20pm.

This week we saw Burn After Reading. I wish the screenwriter had saved us the time and Burned After Writing.

Shred of Evidence

Spoken words linger in my mind
Unspoken words hesitate at tip of my tongue
Regret of shredded words live in my heart
Never to be heard again.
Unless by fate there was a magic memory stick
Tucked away somewhere. Forgotten.
With words in tact.

Untitled, of course

i wrote a haiku

but it wasn't very good

so I threw it out