Passing time

I've been trying to write this post for about a half hour now, but I haven't been able to because I've been involved in a full-out frustrating battle of Minesweeper.

You know Minesweeper, it's that PC game where you click on little boxes and numbers come up telling you how many bombs touch the boxes. If you click on a bomb, then you die.

I am hopelessly addicted to Minesweeper. I have been for several years now. I was proud of the way I could navigate the expert level (although I usually only win once or twice a day) until I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, and found that the narrator also loved Minesweeper. The catch? The narrator was autistic.

So perhaps my Minesweeper addiction is not "normal." However, it is a good way to pass time during the day.

There are many things I should be doing during the day. Laundry, cleaning, writing the great American novel. However, it is vacation, and I can't seem to get up to speed doing anything.

Some may recall that I had a similar problem in the summer, which was only exacerbated by the fact that I didn't have cable, and thus spent my time surfing the web and watching Dawson's Creek episodes on DVD. Well, now I have cable, but there isn't much on.

I usually flip between ABC Family, HGTV, and FoodNetwork, with some MTV2 thrown in (if there's an America's Next Top Model marathon!). I try to catch House Hunters on HGTV every day at noon, which is a fabulous show and allows me to live vicariously through people who can buy houses and move out of the apartments.

I often catch several things on ABC Family. I like Gilmore Girls and several other shows. Every so often I will catch part or all of an episode of Full House.

However, the past two days have been Happy Birthday to Stace in terms of Full House episodes! (My former students will recall learning the story arc through an episode of Full House. Or perhaps they won't recall -- it's hard to tell if they listen or not!) A couple of my most favorite episodes (and, yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds that I have favorite Full House episodes) have been playing.

So we got to see "Stephanie runs Joey's car into the kitchen because she thought the R on the gear shift stood for RADIO because 1. she is ridiculous and 2. Joey is a moron and left her watching his car, which had the keys in it. Danny gets mad because he just mopped and Steph tries to run away to Mexico to be a Mexican Hat Dancer" episode. Love it because it's so ridiculous!

Today's episode might be my favorite ever. "D.J. goes to school dance with Kevin, who is dwarfed by DJ's huge hair. Kevin feels inadequate -- probably as much because of the hair as because DJ knows everyone and he's admittedly 'not good at that stuff.' Kevin's friends loosen him up by giving him BEER! Then they spray DJ with beer when she tells them they are idiots. Jesse catches her with the beer and assumes she's been drinking it." Whoo-hoo! A message episode! Kids are very susceptable to peer pressure, after all. Kevin, that tool, admits to his 8th grade friends that he's nervous (yeah, right, like that would ever happen) and then offers DJ beer by saying, "It tastes terrible! You want some?" I'm not sure why I have such an affinity for this one -- perhaps because Danny says, "I don't know how to handle this!" which is totally unusual, because everyone knows between the three men, Danny always knows how to parent. They also need to figure out WHY DJ did it so they can figure out a way to HELP her. It all turns out okay in the end, of course, and DJ goes on without being punished because Kevin admits to Danny and Jesse that he was the one drinking and DJ tried to stop him. (Perhaps if Steph had been the subject of this Very Special Episode, she would have stayed off the meth in later life.)

Anyway, obviously I have been lazy these past two days. Perhaps watching TV isn't the best way to pass the time, but it is one way to do it. I also read a ton during the day, and just broke into a reserve box of books that were still packed because we don't have anymore shelf space for them.

Tomorrow is all business, as I have to pack and wrap Christmas presents!

How do you pass time when you have nothing hanging over your head?