Thursday, July 13, 2006

Guilty pleasures

After chatting with Beth today (who does not have a DVD player or full cable), I started thinking about how I would be miserable without my DVD player, and my cable, and lots of other little niceties that make my daily living pleasurable. So, without further ado, here are my top five guilty (or not - I don't feel guilty about them -maybe I mean superficial?) pleasures:

1) TiVo. This is in the number one spot for a reason. TiVo has changed my television watching forever. Now I can speed through a half hour show in 20 minutes, an hour-long show in 40 minutes, and never ever have to watch commercials. Sure, you could do this before with VCRs, but let's face it - those things never record right, you always have to buy new tapes, and I could never set it up to tape the whole season of Lost (first-run episodes only, and it doesn't matter if they change the day it airs to say a Tuesday instead of the regular Wednesday) with just a few quick clicks of a button. I feel like TiVo is part of my family. Maybe I will have it sign my Christmas cards this year. I could seriously go on and on about TiVo.

2) Netflix. You know when there are movies you want to see, but maybe you feel a little silly about it? Take The Pacifier starring Vin Diesel. Because my Netflix agreement is a monthly charge, three movies at a time, no limit per month deal, there is really no drawback to adding a movie like The Pacifier to my queue. And, when it arrives, having it sit near the DVD player for a couple of weeks, unplayed, only to be sent back, unwatched. Because, really - why would I ever want to see The Pacifier starring Vin Diesel? Hypothetically speaking, of course. Anyway, Netflix allows me to be super-finicky about my movie choices, and see all the movies I refuse to see in the theaters (because of the commercials - why do they show commercials at the movies!? This enrages me). I digress.

3) Gossip magazines, specifically US Weekly, In Touch, Life and Style, and People. Every weekend, Greg and I head to Borders, get some delicious mochas, and sit and read the magazines. The above mentioned magazines are the first in my pile. I am such a celebrity gossip whore. I can't get enough of what's going on with Jen and Vince, Brad and Angelina, Jen and Brad, Angelina and Jen - you get my drift. I don't think of myself as a complete idiot, and I do read a lot of books, but I heart these magazines so much. Maybe because they help me realize how much I don't want to be a celebrity.

4) Speaking of reading, the fourth item on my list is what they officially call "women's contemporary literature," but I like to call "chick lit." You know, those books of the Bridget Jones' Diary variety, not the romance novels with the big, chest-heaving Fabios on the cover (which I can proudly say I have never read, save for a couple of Judith Krantz books in college). Anway, I love authors like Jane Green, Lynda Curnyn, Lisa Jewell, Emily Giffin, Jennifer Weiner...I could go on and on. Don't worry -I read other stuff too. Right now I'm reading a book about Hitler-era Germany! Definitely not in the chick-lit category, unless the story takes a surprising turn.

5) Last, but not least, is my hobby of singing along to showtunes. I. Can. Not. Sing. You wouldn't believe how much I cannot sing, unless you've had the misfortune of actually hearing me. This is my great tragedy. For a person who loooooooves musicals (not as much as I love plays, but still) it seems completely unfair that I am so talent-free that I have no place even appearing in the chorus of one of these shows. But put me in my car with the stereo blasting, and I'm starring in Rent, Tick, Tick...Boom, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - the list goes on and on. Hey, if I turn the volume up high enough, I can't even hear the wretched noise I make.

All of this is not to say that I'm a superficial person. And if you know me, I'm hoping you can agree. But we all need the little things to get us through the day, and these are some of mine. Let the making fun commence.

5 comments:

lgaumond said...

Aww... that was even BETTER than a weekend plan summary!

I also love to sing at the top of my lungs in the car, and the Rent soundtrack really is the best to sing along to. I've been banned from ever singing in public so my car is the only place to do it. But I'd consider that a necessity, not a guilty pleasure. You really do have to get the music out any way you can.

I love those celeb magazines, too, and have a secret and very quiet fascination with celebrities and celebrity gossip mags (ssh! don't tell).

I loved Netflix before Luke made me cancel it. He thought it was a silly thing to have but it got me to watch all sorts of movies I might never have seen. (And BTW, I've seen The Pacifier twice and you really should have watched it. There are Ninjas! And Lorelai Gilmore! And the little girl asking about Vin's boobs, that was worth sitting through the whole movie. And I'm not just saying that because Vin once, very briefly, held a spot on my List.)

And Chick Lit... Chick Lit rocks. There's nothing guilty about it. I believe that the BBCS has based its foundation on Chick Lit. We are the Chick Lit Ambassadors.

Now TiVo, I really don't know a thing about TiVo. Some day I'm going to camp out at your house and experience some TiVo for myself. You'll have to also show me some Lost episodes that day since that's something else I've never seen but really should.

And Beth really doesn't have a DVD player? WTF? We have an extra, I think we have four or five in all. I should donate one to the needy Wik household. How sad.

Amanda said...

OMG, you totally should donate one to the Wiks. It is just plain sad. (You know we're teasing, Beth! Sort of.)

Beth said...

Um, OMG - as I'm reading this, Jay comes in the room with a big box and says Happy Anniversary (3 yrs on Sunday) and it's a DVD/VCR PLAYER)!!!!

So, now I'm cool like you guys!!!!

Amanda said...

YAY! Happy Anniversary!

Flann said...

Woohoo! Beth got a DVD player! I feel that all is right with the world now. This is very exciting.