Television and Nothing to Do

It is interesting to think that I am done with school. Finished. Done. Nothing left. It really hit me last night when I got home from my job clerking for a small firm in Chicago. My wife was at school and so there was no one to talk to and because I graduated from school and I am done with the bar exam, I literally had nothing to do. Plus we are letting my brother in law borrow my car so I had no transportation. So I did what most American males do with such a scenario. I turned on the tv.

I don’t watch a lot of tv. I probably don’t watch any shows with any degree of regularity. Usually if the tv is on, I am watching Animal Planet or Food Network. But last night I started watching an old Clint Eastwood western. I think it was by director Sergio Leone and while the cinematography was interesting as was the story, the fact that the dialogue was dubbed drove me crazy. So I changed it and watched an episode of The Closer which was pretty good. I actually cried at the end. After that I got bored with the tv and pulled out my guitar and started playing through some songs.

Looking back I realize that it was a wasted evening. I have been saying for months, “when I get some time I am going to start painting again…..when I finish school I am going to sit down and start my novel.” Yet when I finally had time, I wasted it watching tv. It is kind of depressing actually. Art used to be my whole life. It is all I thought about, all I cared about. But I think it has been three years or more since I did anything with it.

So tonight I am not at home. I went with my wife to her school and am in their computer lab typing this blog and feeling pretty good about doing something other than watching tv. Although it would be kind of interesting to have something to be studying for.

P.S. After my wife got home, we watched this show on MTV where they take the bratty spoiled kids who were spotlighted in the show “My Super Sweet Sixteen” and force them to go and live in a Third World country for two weeks. I think the person who came up with this show should be given a medal.