Last night I got home from work to find my roommate lying on the couch watching TV. We haven’t had any channels at all since we canceled the cable a couple months back, so I was confused about what was happening. “Is that TV?” I asked (stupidly), waking him. “It’s cable,” he replied (groggily), rolling over on the couch.
I left feeling kind of gross. My mind immediately leapt to: Wow, my roommates think I’m completely nuts, and so they got cable back without even asking me. Irrational, but I honestly couldn’t think of any other possible explanation. In the end it turns out my other roommate, who claims to only be able to do homework in front of the TV, decided on a whim that she needed cable back ASAP and couldn’t wait to discuss it with us. She figured she’d just pay for the whole thing if we didn’t want it.
So now we have stupid cable. Of course I’ll feel like a twit if I watch any TV at all and then try to get out of contributing to the cost of the cable. And of course I’ve already watched the damn thing, so basically I’m a giant hypocrite.
And so it is that I awake (or rather, am awakened) from my utopian TV-free dream. I’m not surprised – 2007 has been that kind of year so far: this cable hoo hah seems the perfect metaphor for the feeling I have that my own destiny seems just beyond my reach. Depressing, really. I’m raging against it, but kind of powerlessly. Damn.
What is a girl to do? Go to sleep and hope that she gets up on the right side of the bed in the morning, I guess.
Sweet dreams,
xox n
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January 14, 2007 at 1:48 pm
helen
Independent resolve can go a long way if there is no intervention to throw it off track. Two months may have seemed like a life time for the tv-homework room mate, if that way of working got known results.
This is not a pro or con response, but rather one about temptation.
Cable tv never found its way into my living space before now. While there was choice involved in letting this happen, it would never have been considered if the rent I pay did not include both internet and cable tv. Surprise! When i found a size appropriate one-room habitat i had no idea that it was a value-added situation. Temptation! The internet, i must admit, is a must have in my life. TV never has been.
Regardless, and for various reasons I thought that a small TV placed almost out of sight in the corner of my room would provide access to mindless entertainment at the end of a long day/week of mindful work, and that with its integrated DVD feature i could watch a movie on occassion. Well, i quickly remembered that i am not mindless, and that i enjoy my own company more than Howie Mandell asking lithe women to fumble with clasps on briefcases, or House (which i must admit to quite enjoying in his first season), and if i have something in a box affecting my space, I want to decide what that is.
An assessment of the cable tv situation in my life was complete within 48 hours. There is nothing there that aligns with how I live. I have been relieved from even having to think that i might be missing something. I am quite pleased to know that, like alcohol, i can have cable tv in my house without having to drink it up.
January 14, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Daijinryuu
The roommate decided on her own to get the cable back without your consent. If you accidentally watch any of it while she watches it, it is not your fault by my logic. When the cable bill comes, you shouldn’t have to pay for her desires…if she can’t pay it, don’t lend her the money if she is short, as money is a major source of relatal problems. Also, who knows if she is to pay you back? ANd what if she needs the money again if she can’t make the next bill?