Why am I doing this?

A few weeks ago Ben and were talking about Lent. Both of us grew up religious and celebrated Lent as children by giving something up - soda, chocolate, fish on Fridays (Ben) - and this got me thinking. Although I am currently not currently religious and attending a particular church, I do like the idea of challenging myself to go without something. I'd like to say I thought long and hard about what it is I'd be giving up, but really I just put it out of my mind for a few weeks and then all of a sudden *ding* the light bulb came on (that's what mine sounds like by the way). I will take a sabbath from watching television.

Now you have to understand something. I watch A LOT of television. I don't even want to begin to think about counting up the amount of hours I have watched in the last several years. While I have naturally begun to ween myself from watching network television over the last 6 months, I have increased the amount to televisions series I can get from Netflix. I will attempt to remember all the series I've either completed or am waiting for the most recent past season to be released:

• Arrested Development (Genius! Why did they stop?!)
  
• Nip/Tuck
  
• Weeds (Also genius! Keep it going!)
  
• The Office (This show kills me it's so funny!)
  

Series I am working on but have not completed:

• Sopranos (I can only take this one is small doses)
• O.C. (I'm currently on the second season and will have to halt the progression for this sabbath.)
• Project Runway (I'm obsessed with Heidi Klum. Did you know she has her own jewelry line? What can't that woman do?)
  

I know I'm forgetting some so Ben, please remind me...

Shows I currently watch/follow are:

• Ellen
• Oprah
• The View
  
• Gossip Girl (*love* it)
• 90210 (The new one. It's not as good but it's something to occupy my time.)
• Privileged
• Lost
• Ugly Betty
• Grey's Anatomy
• Friday Night Lights
• The Bachelor

This is not even taking into account the movies that we rent on Netflix and go to. We probably average 2+ movies per week. But movies are not banned for me, just TV. Thank God!

So beginning Ash Wednesday, February 25th, I will not watch television (network, Netflix, whatever...) until Easter Sunday, April 12. Instead I will do what I've been wanting to do for quite some time now but never seemed to have (or make) the time - WRITE! Hence, the blog. I am hoping I will have more accountability to writing if I know people might tune in to see what I'm learning about the process. Plus I'm hoping to also do fun stuff with all my new found free time like go to museums, listen to live music, hang out with friends, spend quality time with Ben, etc.

So if you're curious how this will go for me and what mystery I uncover I encourage you to become a "Follower" of this blog. You can sign up on the lefthand side of the page and you will get an email when I update the blog.

Thanks for reading!