DAY 1: You Know, I Used To Like Saturdays

Well, Day One's in the books, with Day Two winding down as I type this. You'd think this whole Media Deprivation thing would be cake for me considering this is my FOURTH TIME doing it, but nope! It never gets any easier and you know what? This might've been the hardest one yet, and it was only 48 hours! Heck, I did 72 hours last semester and I don't recall being so tempted, so anxious, and so... WEAK! Yes, even your professor gave into temptation! (Pssst! Don't tell anyone but I currently have my earbuds on and I'm listening to music while I blog and read my students' blogs. Hey, I won't tell if you won't!).

So, yeah Day One... I woke up to a chorus of construction racket going on RIGHT OUTSIDE MY HOUSE. See, they're building a model home right next door and apparently they work on Saturdays. That picture on the left was my view from the living room where I like to work out and enjoy the beautiful scenery outside with my blinds open. Oh joy. So I had to work out without any music (my usual M.O.) or TV playing, which would've cancelled any of that racket outside my house. Yeah, I know: Whahwhahwhahwhah! To add insult to injury my housemate was gone for the day so I had the house all to myself, which under normal circumstances would've been a treat. But oh no, not today! And I could hear EVERYTHING outside: not only the clangs and booms but also the conversations. My Spanish is very shaky (and that's putting it mildly), so I wasn't able to really follow along, but sheesh not the ideal sounds to work out to, you know?

I also had to stay at the house because the AT&T guy was coming to install our new Internet and phone, which had to be done today. So while the AT&T guy was here I made a point to do something I hadn't done in months: read my comics. Yes, your professor is a lifelong comic geek. Hey, they're great reading materials; educational, too. Okay, maybe not so much the educational part but still! Anyway, I caught up on my comic book reading since I couldn't really do anything else. NO, I didn't listen to my iPod while reading my comics... But dammit I wanted to so bad!

After the AT&T guy finished the installation I decided I should get out of the house and do something. I remembered that I had this giftcard to Kohl's and now was as good a time as any to use it and do some shopping; specifically for a pair of black jeans. Simple quest, right? Heh, if only shopping were that simple for yours truly. Since I lived only two minutes away from Kohl's in a car, I figured what the hell -- why not huff it over there instead? I estimated it'd be only about a 12-minute walk, and exercise is always good for you (especially once you hit the ripe old age of 30!).

So I walked to Kohl's in search of a pair of black jeans. It was such a beautiful day, too. It wasn't too hot, and the walk itself felt great. I need to do that more. As for the black jeans quest, well, let's just say that didn't go over so well. After about an hour of trying on several different pairs (and styles), I ended up walking out of Kohl's with a freakin' belt! Yep, a belt. Hey, after my giftcard and the awesome discount (Kohl's is cool like that) I only spent $2.16 of real money for that belt. I kinda needed one, too. Kinda LOL.

Now what to do at night??? Well, I met up with some friends at Chester's Hamburgers for dinner. Yum. But not as "yum" as Chris Madrid's IMHO. It was to celebrate the last Saturday that my buddy Steve and his fiancee will be single. They're getting married next Saturday. I've known Steve since 4th grade (and his fiancee since high school), so I'm really happy for them. Oh, and I got to see the Cavs-Celtics game while at Chester's, which was nice. I'm a big basketball fan so this deprivation was especially tough given the timing with the NBA playoffs going on. Dinner with friends was very enjoyable, but I was disappointed that nobody wanted to keep the night going so there I was with nothing to do the rest of the night...

Until I decided to visit one of my close friends who's nursing a broken leg and ankle (uhh, don't ask!). He lived nearby and, frankly, I didn't want to go home and be tempted to watch TV, listen to music, surf the 'Net, et al. BTW, I haven't listened to any music, not even in my car, which is pretty freakin' tough for me. I did forget for about a minute to turn off my radio earlier in the day but I turned it off immediately after I remembered. I promise.

So I dropped by his house to see how he was doing. He's been holed up in his house for over a month. No work. No going out. No nothing. Since he broke the lower part of his leg and his ankle, he's had to remain bed-ridden and immobile this whole time. Well, as you can imagine, he's watched a lot of TV and played a lot of video games while convalescing. We were hanging out at his house for awhile when he got the itch to get out of the house and do something fun for a change. It's funny because here I was getting out of the house to avoid the mass media temptation and here my buddy was getting out of the house because he was sick and tired of all the mass media he was consuming. We both got a kick out of it.

We made our way to a nearby watering hole, one that we used to frequent back when our schedules allowed us to, and ended the night there amidst some bad karaoke and plenty of merrymaking. Their drink specials were quite nice, considering it was a Saturday night.

But I'm not going to lie -- I did fire up the car stereo on the way home. Hey, I had a long drive ahead of me and I just couldn't stand the silence anymore! Thankfully, I just got my car serviced so there weren't any funny noises I had to endure while driving sans stereo. But enough was enough! I needed some tunes!

Yep, that was only DAY ONE! Oh, day Two. I am NOT looking forward to you!