I was a pretty lazy kid.  Every day after school I’d set my ass in front of the telly and watch reruns, such as the iconic Gilligan’s Island.  Other kids were outside playing ball while I spent the many hours in our living room with my “friends” on Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Partridge Family.  Sadly, as I continued to be a couch potato, I continued to look like a potato. 

When I was in the 5th grade we had a nurse come in one day and weighed us.  I can’t remember why, but I’m guessing it must have been part of some physical or something.  I was terrified as I approached the scale.  I felt like I was stepping into the jaws of a mighty beast.  I weighed 175 lbs.  What happened was what I expected to happen – The nurse didn’t talk softly and almost immediately I could hear the kids out in the hall talking about and laughing about my weight.  This was one of the most humiliating times of my life.

With time, as I grew  up (or should I say grew older), I reached a point that I had no interest in television at all.  It bored me.  I didn’t want to be it’s slave.  I was lucky enough that when I first moved to my own home, I did not have a television.  I read, read, and read some more.  As time passed I finally bought one, which I primarily used to watch movies on VHS (kids, ask your parents what a VHS is).

Oh, I did get out from time to time.  My friends and I would bike around the neighborhood and sometimes we’d bike all the way downtown to the Ready Theater in hopes that there was another Godzilla or Planet of the Apes movie that was out.  Sure I was getting some exercise, but apparently not enough.

Over the years I tried to stay away from the tube as much as I could.  That was until I happened upon  a series called “St. Elsewhere”.  It ran a few years before I happened to see it and was immediately drawn to it.  I loved the stories, the characters, etc.  It grasped hold of me and wouldn’t let me go.  Each week I had to watch it.  If I was going out with friends we either had to go do something before, or something after St Elsewhere was on. I became it’s slave.  It’s prized bitch. 

Once St. Elsewhere was cancelled, I swore I would never allow myself to be a slave to any television show.  It worked most of the time.  I resigned myself to watching shows like Law and Order, or one of the CSI shows.  Sure the characters had individual story lines, but they are shows that I can easily just focus on the crime and them resolving it within an hour.  I only watched the shows occasionally which is the way I liked it. 

But all that has changed now….I am totally obsessed with Glee.  Two young ladies at my church were chatting about it.  They were talking about how much they liked this character or that character.  They talked about the story lines.  They discussed the music.  I was mesmerized by the excitement and energy they were showing towards the show.  I decided that I should take a look at this and see what all the hub-bub was about.  Big Mistake!!! 

I am obsessed with everything about Glee.  The music is fun.  The dance steps are also.  The characters are all likable even though you’ll have a love/hate thing with some of them. 
I have watched some episodes many, many times.  I am linked to some of their Facebook pages, and I play their music when I wear my earplugs anywhere.  I was never  this obsessed about St. Elsewhere.
I’m one of those people who never wants to hear anything about a movie before I’ve seen it.  That’s the way it should be with Glee, but it’s not.  I look at the Glee Blogs everyday searching for spoilers to tell me what is going to happen in upcoming episodes.

How am I going to break this habit?  I’m not sure I want to.  It’s a guilty pleasure of mine.  It’s only one hour a week (not counting all the Glee blogs I read, etc.) .  Is it conducive to losing weight?  No, not at all, even though it makes me feel like I want to dance.  So, I’m not going to blame a tv show for making me gain or sustain my current weight.  Not this time, I mean, what about the other 23 hours in my day?

I think I’m ok about this.  If not, I may have to go find a Glee twelve step program because I know there is no way for me to break away from this on my own. 

I’m sure there’s plenty more I will share about this.  Right now, it’s time to get dinner started.