It was yesterday morning around 10a.m. when the ‘cable guy’ showed up to help me get acquainted with the 21st century. While he quickly hooked up and synced the cable box to the tv, I happily anticipated catching up on Weeds, Entourage, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Thanks to free Showtime for 6 months and $6 monthly HBO charges for a year, I’m experiencing cable as I never have before! For years my apartment building had a cable-ready hook-up that allowed me the pleasures of my favorite channels (Bravo, FX, and TV One) with no impact on my wallet, but when, almost a year ago, digital cable was introduced in the Baltimore area, I was relegated back to plain old tv antennae status, meaning I had ABC, NBC, CBS, and MPT (Maryland Public Television). Hating the idea of paying for tv, I tried to embrace my newfound smug point-of-view: not being a slave to the established system of the private-industry monopoly ruling my ability to access television, but kept having a nagging dissatisfaction with channel options. I took up re-watching episodes of King of Queens and Seinfeld and due to sheer lack of choices started watching How I Met Your Mother (turns out this is a pretty good show!). Problem is, once the pre-primetime shows were off and the final season of Friday Night Lights ended, I was left with summer primetime which is abysmal at best; have you ever found yourself watching Wipeout or plagued with two hours of America’s Got Talent? If yes, chances are you don’t/didn’t have cable. To compensate for lack of riveting content on tv, my man decided that streaming Netflix would be a good alternative and it was, until I realized every movie I wanted to watch was DVD-only and I ran out of random documentaries to watch, most notably Joaquin Phoenix’s I’m Still Here (definitely shaking my head on that one). Lack of channels, irritation with not being able to contribute to ‘water-cooler’ conversations about Basketball Wives, the imminent football season (this is for the boyfriend), and a desire to experience DVR all lead to my decision to bite the proverbial bullet and join the cable crowd; 24 hours in I don’t regret it. Today it’s Sunday, and I’m typing this while outside my window is a stormy-gray torrential downpour, perfect for curling up in the easy chair and exploring On Demand; in this moment I am shamelessly happy…don’t judge me.
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