My TiVo and Me

My TiVo is starting to pressure me. It just sits there in my TV, keeping track of all the fun shows that I am missing in my life. I have been busier than usual, and when I sat down one night last week with a box of Girl Scout Cookies (don’t judge!) and my TiVo remote, I was ready to unwind and catch up on good TV.

Instead, I felt I was being nagged. I turned it on and there was a list that went back two weeks. It was enormous. It wouldn’t even fit on one screen. I had to flip between screens to view all my shows. It was too much for me to handle.  To me, it was just another area of my life where things were out of control.  I turned it off and went to bed frustrated.

I am a list person. I function off of lists in every component in my life. There is a magnetic notepad on my fridge where I keep our grocery shopping list. There is a list in our office of bills paid and unpaid so I can keep track every month. There is a list of dog supplies we need the next time I am at Petco. And that’s just at my house. At work, I have lists for contacting people (there are sublists on this one with people that I contact daily, weekly, and rarely). There are lists of things to do that day. Lists of things to be done that week. Lists of things to delegate. I’m surrounded by and addicted to lists.

But here’s the thing. I usually make these lists just so I have something to cross off. My point is to see how much I’ve gotten done, not how much I have left to do – sort of a “glass half full” approach to list making. It really bothers me when I can’t mark something off my list in a short amount of time.

The next night, I was more prepared so I sat down in front of my TV and realized that I had to tackle this TiVo list as I do any list – with a strategy and a will to succeed.

I immediately went through and deleted all of Chris’ shows. Selfish, I know. But something had to go.

Then I deleted all those shows that I TiVo IN CASE I decide I want to watch them. For me, these shows are Rachel Ray‘s talk show (although I adore her and still think we would be best friends if she could just meet me, darn it!) and Ellen (I usually just watch her opening monologue anyway). Then, any Oprah‘s that I didn’t LOVE the topic of had to be sacrificed (I am slightly obsessed with Oprah and every day I post something on her website in hopes that she will ask me on her show. I think I have a good shot – young, female working professional, going to school part-time while supporting my husband’s dream…Oprah would eat that crap up!). That left me with all the episodes of Real Housewives of New York (which I cannot part with) and Top Chef (by the way, did you see last week’s ending??? Everyone fighting and throwing things? Loved it!). Though I couldn’t accomplish it in one night, the list at least fit onto one page. I could handle that.

I realize how crazy I sound in this post. I realize that I am becoming confrontational and rational (or irrational, depending on your perspective) with my television. But its just how I deal. So, if anyone can tell me who Rachel Ray’s guests were on her show last week, that’d be awesome. Thanks.