It's Been a Lovely, Quiet Month

Today I got home from work exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to collapse on the couch with a bowl of some kind of leftovers and zone out into TV land. But I couldn't. Because I gave TV up for Lent.

I was worried that this would happen, that I would get bored around my apartment without the crutch of TV to lean on. Of course there are lots of screenless things I love to do, but TV is such a comfort food that I was worried I'd miss it. It turns out I haven't really. I've enjoyed how quiet our apartment is without it. And I've enjoyed how mentally active it makes me feel. Especially after a long day like today, it forces me to make choices about my free time, to confront the things that need to get done, and to find the energy to do the things I want to do, even if they're not as easy as plopping down in front of a good show.

That's not to say that I was ever an extreme TV watcher. But it does have a tendency to suck you in and make hours and evenings disappear. Without it, our apartment feels cleaner, our food feels healthier, and the hours feel longer. And I'm almost never bored.

I am going to start watching TV again. Mad Men is back (yes, I watched the season premier, but a loophole in the Christian calendar says that's okay), the Red Sox start a new season next week, and I need to know who's going to win the next seasons of Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance. I can't help it, I'm a product of my culture. But before I turn it on, I'm going to remember how nice it is to have it off, and really think through whether or not there's something I'd rather be doing.

No TV for a Month--The Ground Rules

As of Wednesday, I'm giving TV up for Lent. I don't watch a ton of TV, but I'm easily sucked in and distracted by it. There are a few shows I watch regularly when they're on (Mad Men, Parenthood, Project Runway, So You Think You Can Dance--don't judge), and we often have something on in the background, like MSNBC or a baseball game. So I'm really looking forward to having the apartment full of quiet for a few weeks. I'm hoping this lets me get a lot more reading, cooking, and baking done, and maybe some other projects I've been meaning to get to.

Rules:
1. No TV of any kind during the week.
2. I can watch a movie on DVD at most twice on the weekend (no more than one a day).
3. Once the first month is over (the "Thirty Things" goal), I'm allowed to watch one TV show on Sundays, since Sunday is a feast day and isn't observed as part of Lent. I'll admit, I'm only giving myself this out so I can watch Mad Men when it premiers in March.

The first test:
The Oscars are on the first weekend I'm giving up TV. Although I haven't seen many of the nominated movies this year, so it won't be all that big a sacrifice.

The only exception:
This is only a minor exception, since I'm allowing myself a movie on DVD a couple of times a weekend. Once the DVDs of Downton Abbey I ordered arrive, my mom is going to come over for a marathon viewing of the second half of Season 2. We'll do it on a Friday night, and I won't let myself watch any other DVDs that weekend.

A big thank you to Greg for letting me do this even though it wasn't his choice to give up TV!

On a final note this week, I turned 28.5 this week. Not really a milestone, but it does mean that I have a mere 18 months to do everything else on my list.

My Belated Musical Education

I've been around music my entire life (my mom is a pianist, my dad sings in a choral society, and my brother can play whatever instrument he picks up), but somehow I didn't get the gene. Or at least for me it showed itself in my love of ballet and other dance, rather than an interest purely in music. As a result, I've heard live classical music more times that I can count at various dance performances, but I'd never been to the symphony.

Over the holidays, my dad and I made plans to see the Boston Symphony. We chose a program based as much on our schedules as on our interests, and ended up with tickets to hear Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2. Both pieces were excellent, although I think I preferred the former. For one thing, the pianist, Emanuel Ax, was phenomenal.

The stage set for the first half of the program: Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto

One thing that really struck me was how human a symphony performance is. When you go to the theatre, the actors aim to disappear into their roles. At the ballet, the dancers seek perfection, trying to make the most difficult movements look perfectly natural. But at the symphony, the perfection the performers are seeking is entirely aural, so they sit on stage looking entirely human. The performers were all ages, in professional but individual dress (at least the women), with mostly casual and everyday hairstyles. Occasionally, after an especially rigorous section, even the first violinists would drop their arms to shake out the tension. This was hard work, done by real people, though obviously real people with extraordinary talent. 

Now, I still know embarrassingly little about classical music, so the day after the concert I went out to buy copies of both pieces on CD. I'm hoping to make this a tradition, and to slowly build a classical music library of pieces I've heard live. Seems like as good a way to educate myself as anything. 

I'm Still Doing This Thing

I haven't looked at the ol' blog since my last post in September, which was all about how life was returning to some version of normal, and I was going to get going on my list. Things didn't turn out that way, and I haven't accomplished anything on the list in the last five months. It's okay . . . I've been busy.

On the plus side, I'm primed to get two more items checked off in the near future. My dad is taking me to see the Symphony on Wednesday night, and I've decided to give up TV for Lent this year.

I'm also thinking about editing some of the goals. I'm thinking "take another academic class" is likely to turn into "take a class at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education" or something else less formal, if only because I don't have any immediate academic goals and don't think I can justify the expense of a real class. And I've barely been to ballet class in months, so I can't see how I'd ever find a way to perform in the next couple of years. Ideas for a replacement goal?

Alrighty, no more updates until I've actually accomplished something.