My weekend binge

I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Megan took Ozzie to her mom’s hometown of Kenosha, WI where a lot of her aunts and uncles live for a cousin’s wedding shower. A lot of them will be meeting Ozzie for the first time. While I knew I would miss them terribly, I looked forward to some much needed Andy time to do whatever I want, which for the most part is nothing. Ozzie turned 10 months old yesterday, so it’s been over 10 months since I’ve had this much time to do nothing.

If you’re feeling slighted that we didn’t hang out during this time, please don’t. I didn’t want anyone to know about it, so as not to make any plans. My plans were to do nothing, and if we made plans, that would be “something.”

By “do nothing,” I don’t mean stare at a wall. I mean that I wanted to have the freedom to stare at a wall all weekend if I chose. What I did plan was to binge-watch a TV series. I recently got HBO for free for a year, and they have every series they’ve ever had available on demand. I’ve had Showtime for many years, and love a lot of the series on it. I used to have HBO in the 00’s and got rid of it as the good series' ended (Six Feet Under, The Sopranos).

A few weeks ago I watched a couple episodes of Eastbound and Down to try it out, and it’s okay, but nothing I wanted to waste a weekend on. Then I turned on my TV one day and Girls was on. I

watched one scene of the 3^rd season and knew that I had to give it a go. I watched the first episode shortly thereafter and I was hooked. I have been binging on Girls all weekend and I love it. 

I’ve never had the true “binge-watching” experience. Megan and I watched Breaking Bad pretty quickly, but it was over several weeks, maybe even a month or two. I’m trying to get 30  half-hour episodes in over a weekend. That’s 15 hours. Should be no problem, right? It’s harder than it sounds.

As much as I want to park in front of the TV for 15 hours straight, 36+ years of responsibility won’t let me. I’ve seen 15 episodes, 12 this weekend, and plan to get the rest of season two in before bedtime tonight. But the garage has needed attention pretty much since we moved in. I decided that I could let TV rot my brain after I cleaned out the garage; so yesterday I spent 2.5 hours gutting the garage, sweeping it out and putting things back in the way they should be. I’d love to have a garage sale for half of the stuff in there.

  

Then I got to embark on Girls. I see it as a step above mumblecore. I learned about mumblecore in college in one of my film courses. My professor described it as “people just kind of hanging out.” The Duplass brothers have made some great mumblecore flicks.  See The Puffy Chair and Baghead. There are some God-awful mumblecore titles out there too that should be avoided at all costs, like Hanna Takes the Stairs (which we had to watch in class) and Funny Ha Ha.

Girls follows Hannah who is an unemployed writer living in New York City with her professional roommate and best friend Marnie. They just kind of hang out. Hannah’s parents tell her in the first episode that they can’t keep supporting her financially, so she begins a job search. She is spoiled and selfish, but also funny and makes you fall in love with her. She has a boyfriend, Adam, who isn’t as much a boyfriend as much as he’s someone with whom she has sex. I hated him early on, but 1.5 seasons in he’s one of my favorite characters on the show.

Binge-watching a series is fun, but reference that 36+ years of responsibility above. I feel slightly guilty. Only slightly though. I cleaned out the garage and I am doing laundry today, so you can’t say I didn’t do anything. AND I don’t know when I’ll get this kind of opportunity again. Maybe never. But if I do, HBO has all of The Wire on demand. I’ve never seen one episode, but have heard only good things.

45 days without chocolate

The day before Fat Tuesday I thought about how I've never given up anything for Lent. I'm not really religious, but saw it more as a challenge just to see if I could do it. I chose to give up chocolate for the "40" days of Lent. I quit drinking over 3 years ago, and quit smoking (for the last time) almost 2 years ago. Chocolate and Diet Coke are my only vices now. I didn't realize how addicted to chocolate I am, and I don't care.

Not eating chocolate was harder than quitting smoking, and I quit that cold turkey. I had a lot of time to think about why that was, and it's because I had to quit smoking for the health risks and cost, and I'll never smoke again. I knew that I was going to eat chocolate again in "40" days, and chocolate can't kill me.

I keep putting 40 in parentheses because I thought I was quitting for the "40" days of Lent. A couple weeks into it, after obcessing about chocolate the whole time, I counted the days and found it is actually 47 days. Why do people always say 40 days? Well, I guess the number of days is a little different every year, and Catholics don't count the Sundays of Lent, or some crap. So imagine my disappointment on day 15 when I learned that I had to do 7 days longer than I thought.

My total weight difference during my challenge was +2 pounds. The reason for that is simple. I supplemented the sugar intake with other forms of sugar. Birthday cake Oreos, Nutter Butters, butter pecan ice cream, etc. Not eating chocolate made me realize a few things, for instance chocolate helps maintain my weight. Also, desserts without chocolate are a complete waste of time. I noticed there aren't a lot of cereals or ice creams without chocolate in them. You'll see what I mean next time you're at the grocery store. Something that helped a little was Yoplait boston cream pie yogurt. There's no chocolate in it, but it helped take the edge off.

 

I thought about chocolate a lot while I couldn't have it. I daydreamed of Easter when I planned on going hog-wild and making myself sick. I lost my creativity and/or inspiration. I don't know if that had to do with quitting chocolate, or if it's just a funk, but it's easy to blame the lack of chocolate. I've also been falling asleep earlier, which is nice for the rest I get, but annoying that I can't stay awake past 9:30-10:00.

Megan was awesome and got me an Easter basket filled with chocolate goodies. My favorite-Reese's peanut butter eggs, Snickers eggs, Kit-Kat's, and a few other things. I wanted to see it early because I didn't want to double up on things when I went out the day before Easter and bought chocolate on which to binge.

On Good Friday Megan and I went out to eat at our old home-away-from-home, JJ's on 394. We had a great dinner, Megan had a couple of drinks, and Ozzie was a dream-baby. He was smiley, dancing to the music, and soaking up all of the attention that everyone gave him. During dinner I was thinking about how I'd done what I said I was going to do. I didn't have any chocolate for 40 days plus 5 more. I didn't have to do it, but I did. I didn't "cave." I ordered the chocolate cake for dessert and I have no regrets.

It was better than I remember chocolate. The first bite was honestly euphoric. The cake and the chocolate syrup mixture was perfectly balanced, and it had chocolate pudding inside. It was the perfect thing to get back on the chocolate horse. When I got home I had a Reese's egg, and my biggest vice, peanut M&M's. I have been indulging in chocolate ever sense and couldn't be happier. 

I learned a couple of things. I learned that I can do it, and that I'll never do it again.