Am…musings

I never watch TV. Really … never. While some people automatically turn the TV on when they’re home, my house is filled with music, normally from my iPod. I do enjoy the Food Network and HGTV, and watch one or two shows on the networks, but typically spend so much time online that I rarely, if ever, turn the TV on. Plus, I’m not good at using the TV for background noise … I have to stop and watch and that just seems too unproductive to me.

For years I’ve been saying that I need to cancel my satellite package and stop wasting $50 per month. Instead, I did nothing. A few months ago, my satellite bill went up to $65 and I vowed to take action. Instead, I did nothing. Tonight, for no real reason I can pinpoint, I decided to pull the plug.

Of course, my first stop was the satellite company’s Web site (why call when you take care of it online?). It wouldn’t let me cancel, but I did notice they had a local stations option. I called and found out I could go with that package alone, which would allow me to watch breaking news and the few network programs I like. I could also cancel service to my second TV in the basement, which I really, really never watch. I can also keep my DVR … truth be told, the convenience of that was the real reason I couldn’t bring myself to pull the plug earlier.

So instead of $65 a month, I’ll be paying $15 ($10 for the local stations and $5 for the DVR). Seems much better to me. Anyone else have a better recommendation?

I’ve decided to take a break from Match.com. It’s just been slow and frustrating in the last two months, and I remember the holidays were deadly quiet last year so I figure why not save the $20 a month.

I’m an over-thinking, “what if” kind of girl so reaching that conclusion took some deliberation. Just today I asked a friend, “What if Prince Charming comes along during my break?” Her retort, “I hate to be the one to tell you, but Prince Charming only exists in fairy tales.”

Life … and my recent experiences … confirm that. And while the image of that kiss makes my heart flutter, it really isn’t the perfect fairly tale romance I’m looking for anyway. Nevertheless, I am also an optimistic kind of girl with high expectations who wants (and think she deserves) a man who feels this way about her … shameless. So while I’m taking a break, (to quote Billy again) I’m “keeping the faith” that we’ll find each other soon.

I feel a little lame re-reading books, but I was not inspired by my stack of mags a few nights ago. And because I read before bed I couldn’t run to the library to grab the political page-turner I’ve recently promised to peruse.

Eat, Love, Pray was handy and I loved it so much when I devoured it in early May that I decided it was worth the second look. I typically prefer fiction, but Elizabeth Gilbert is such an amazing and funny story teller, I almost forget this isn’t. She has a very dry and self-depreciating sense of humor that makes me giggle out loud (and turn a little pea green with envy at her easy writing style).

Last night it was this ditty where she talks about her gorgeous language partner in Italy …
Giovanni doesn’t always get my jokes. Humor is hard to catch in a second language … He said to me the other night, “When you are ironic, I am always behind you. I am slower. It is like you are the lightening and I am the thunder.”

And I thought, Yeah, baby! And you are the magnet and I am the steel! Bring to me your leather, take from me my lace!

Not quite as good as this line delivered by Rhett Butler in one of my favorite reads (that I admit I’ve plowed through a few times) …
“You need kissing, badly. That’s what’s wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.”

but enjoyable nevertheless (or at least for me … maybe because Stevie and Don are singing about leather and lace on my iPod at this very moment … cheesy I know, but I love it!).