I often find myself with television theme songs stuck in my head all day...

Back to my go-to dark purple nail polish and subsequent reality. (Incidentally, I again find myself blogging in the midst of a giant stack of papers to grade...)

But I will resist the urge to talk about either nail polish or paper grading - topics already conquered and consequently off-limits. As I expected, I have not yet successfully mastered the art of frequent blogging, and like many New Years' endeavors and sentiments, I am tempted to lose interest. TIP: Invest your roommate in your New Years' resolutions/goals/things you say you're going to do but might not actually do. Gentle nagging shouldn't have such a bad reputation.

Recent obsession: streaming television shows. Not a new phenomenon, I realize, but when you've gone many months without internet in the comforts of your own home, it is a phenomenon that is just as exciting when revisited. I was reflecting on my earlier, productive college years when I went through a four-year Obsessed with Television phase. Overview:

Freshman Year: I lived in a triple dorm room with two other television-obsessed roommates. We were blessed with free cable access, and we promptly took a roomie-trip to Target to buy the best-valued TV and DVD player that we could fit in my uncle's Mini Cooper. (TV sat in the front seat; the three of us squished into the two seats in the back.) I found it extremely difficult to motivate myself to go to class with three excellent avenues of TV show access: (1) the actual TV - mostly used for our favorite prime time television shows, but also for more practical things like the news or Global Guts (c. Nickelodeon in the 90s), (2) the DVD player - one of my roommates had all ten seasons of Friends on DVD, which we watched all of, The OC, and Grey's Anatomy-- The rule for TV on DVD became that at least two of the three of us had to be present to advance through the episodes... and (3), of course, streaming television. The university gave us a weekly bandwidth limit (rights infringement?), so our computers weren't our primary method of TV fulfillment (not to mention that computer television is so wildly antisocial), but on Wednesdays, One Tree Hill and Lost were on at the same time, so which ever one wasn't on TV had to be watched the following day on the computer.

I can see now this needs to be more brief.
Sophomore Year: This year, I moved into my sorority house. No more bandwidth limit. Highlight was when I skipped all but one of my classes in one week because I got really into The Hills and Weeds and couldn't bring myself to leave my bed except for (some) meals. Also, my then-boyfriend tried to get me into 24 that year. Self-explanatory as to how he became my ex. That show sucks.

Junior/Senior Year: I would say that this is the low (high?) point of my television history. I worked at the same job through junior and senior years, and because of my school schedule, I had to start work every day at 8:00 am, which, today, seems comical to call "early," but compared to my peers was then practically still the middle of the night. Well, to start of the day on the right note, I got into the habit of waking up unnecessarily early, usually before 6:00 am, to watch all the TV shows that had aired the evening before. If someone told me five years ago that I would be waking up at 6:00 am to watch Family Guy... I still don't believe it.

However, today I consider myself rehabilitated. I only watch a select few favorite shows when I am either straightening my hair, grading papers, making copies at school, lesson planning, about to fall asleep, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the rest of the apartment, eating dinner, or if it is a national holiday that I have opted to spend not leaving my bed except for emergencies.