It Took a Pandemic, But I'm Writing Again

My couch and I have literally become best friends; I talk to it, laugh with it, and have genuine fondness for it. I look at it every morning and smile. I can still see the indentations my ass left last night after finally caving to exhaustion and heading to bed after the 4th episode in a row of "Killing Eve." God, I love the way Phoebe Waller Bridge writes. If you haven't seen "Fleabag" or "Killing Eve," be thankful for this pandemic and start binge watching. Speaking of binge watching, until last week, I really didn't get it. I'm not a big TV person. Sure, I love my shows and I watch plenty of them, but I don't sit for hours and click that genius button at the bottom of the screen that counts down seconds to the next episode. And, I didn't realize til last night that if you click before the timer counts down, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT AT ALL! You can even "Skip the Intro!" I will, once this whole pandemic thing is over, have vast stores of new TV knowledge. I have noticed, however, that I kinda like the recap of episodes and I don't know the theme song for any show I'm watching. I grew up in the age of fantastic theme songs: (and, yes, I know that listing them like this is grammatically incorrect, but I don't feel like having to shift and add quotation marks to this whole list. Another thing this pandemic has done; made me crazy lazy.) Cheers, Hawaii 5-O, The Jefferson's, I Dream of Jeannie, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Taxi, Welcome Back, Kotter, Hill St. Blues, The Love Boat, Magnum PI, The Munsters, Bewitched, MASH, Scooby Doo, Friends....I could go on and on. This generation will not be able to do the same, as they have NO IDEA what a theme song for a TV show is. Kind of sad, yet, I click the button every time.

For the first week, I was content to click away. I binge watched TV. I get it now. I'm not sure I like it or even approve of it, but at least now I see what it actually is. Hours, hell, days could go by. But, for my own sanity, it's time to get off the couch, get out of my sweats-though that may be next week's goal, and take the time we have been given here to accomplish things that time might have taken away from us in the past.

I love to write and I loved doing this blog. But, life has a way of shaking things up, and a for me, many things landed in different places after that shake up. My kids were all out of the house, my eldest son got married, I became a grandmother, we moved to a farm and I took up paddle tennis in the winter and tennis for the spring and summer. I babysit my granddaughter two days a week and on the other days, I participate in women's leagues for both sports. NO ONE has ever called me an athlete and yet I got pretty involved and competitive, and met a fantastic group of women who filled a very real void for social interaction. So much so, that I got really busy. My energies were directed elsewhere and I let writing with discipline sort of slip away. I wrote a bit here and there, but not enough.

And now, here we are. It took a pandemic, but I'm at the computer writing. And thinking this is already too long. And that I should save something for another day. That is, if I find the discipline to sit down again tomorrow and do it. I may not be on my couch, but I'm looking at it. "I'll be there in a minute, I whisper. No worries, I haven't forgotten you, or you either, Eve. I'll clean the bathrooms, and then you're all mine. I'll bring the chips."