#SOL18

Addiction – when you can give up something anytime, as long it’s next Tuesday. ~ Nikki Sixx

Help. I need a 12-Step Program.  Now.

It began as the “Countdown to Christmas” at the beginning of December – pretty harmless – or so I thought! I was glued to channel 740, the Hallmark channel.  I would watch as I made my shopping lists, wrote out Christmas cards, wrapped presents, or just vegged out on the couch.  The fake snow gently falling down did a good job putting me in the holiday spirit.  

The characters started to look so familiar, I swear I had seen them before, and I did.  You see these feel-good movies use the same actors in different roles.  The next thing I knew I was googling the actor names to see in which movie I had seen them before. Since I was binge-watching, my head was starting to spin trying to keep them all straight.  I didn’t understand why it was so difficult.  Afterall, I had no problem knowing the difference between Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own, or Robert Langdon in The DaVinci Code, or Forrest Gump! I guess all of his characters were diverse enough and movies judiciously spaced that there was no chance of a mix up.

This channel should really be 666 – the devil’s channel!  You say you are only going to watch one movie, but once it ends there is barely a 30 second commercial before they launch into a new movie.  Such a ploy!

I thought I had this addiction licked once I went back to school after the Christmas break, but no!  Next they went from “Countdown to Christmas” to “Winterfest!”  Having the flu and spending so many hours on the couch caused me to fall down the rabbit’s hole again!!  And I don’t even like winter sports or cold weather!

So this is it!  I have now been watching the Countdown to Valentine’s.  Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day I am determined to quit cold turkey.  How much can one person take of sugary sweet, highly scripted, happy ending stories before they become too optimistic, too happy, too pollyanna?  

On the other hand… when I look at the alternatives – reality TV, evening news, fake news, the state of the world…I may just take the risk and go back to Candyland!