Since getting married, I've noticed something strange. I'm tired all the time. Not physically, but psychologically. I come home from work and feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, I'm half dead and all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch tv. The weird thing here is that I don't have all that much going on. Work is pretty much a 9 to 5 thing, and I wouldn't call my job stressful. I go out on the odd weeknight, but by and large I have my evenings to myself at home. Our weekends are full and we're definitely getting out, but there are still plenty of Saturday afternoons where I just read on the front porch and say things like "hey, do you wanna order Chinese?" to Oliver.
So why do I feel like I'm racing against the clock? Is it because I cook more now, and have to do a lot of the cleanup that goes with it? Is it twice the laundry piling up? Twice the mess scattered around the apartment? Not to say that I'm some house slave and Oliver kicks back every night with a six pack - we share the work. But still, in my mind I know there's twice the work lurking...
Or maybe it's the hidden strain of living every day in a place that still isn't ours completely. Want to go out to eat? Out to a bar? That still involves research - which neighborhood should we go to, what are the good restaurants in that area, etc. Want to do anything? Chances are we've got to pull out a map and get up the energy to "explore". Dunno. Maybe.
Anyhow, one of the side effects of this strange exhaustion is that I don't get a lot done at night. I should be writing more letters! Reading more! Writing in my journal! Doing something else of value... not flipping back and forth between an "Office" rerun and "King of the Hill" (I really like both shows by the way, which will make all this that much harder). My new solution: I'm going to give up tv for a month!
This may not sound like much, but I think it will be a little shock to me. I need to take back control of my time, and this seems like a good place to start. And I'm posting it here because I want to be ASHAMED if I break down and watch an episode of "Canadian Idol". Here I go then, for one month! August 25th! No tv!
2 comments:
It's been almost a week. How's it going?
Really well, actually. I'm getting a lot more done in my free time. I called my brother one night, read a lot of Harry Potter, etc. I didn't have a tv when I lived in Chicago and it was actually kind of liberating.
I have to 'fess up though, we watched a movie one night. Letters from Iwo Jima - we'd downloaded it and I figured it didn't count as mindless tv watching... right?
Post a Comment