If it is free they will come

We’ve had this massive 56 inch TV squatting in our horrible back room for over a year. Why the hell we have it in the 1st place is because it was free. A good friend of ours is in the moving business and a customer didn’t want it anymore.My boyfriend was a mover when I met him,along with most of his friends and lets just say there was a ton of second hand furniture floating about.I know from my own past moves that one sheds a lot of personal belongings during any move.

Back to the TV as big as a house. So we lugged it up the stairs,plugged it in and it worked. Bonus. But it was way too much TV for us. It dwarfed our living room space. It loomed.So we shoved it in the horrible back room and used the top as a shelf.

My success with getting a good TV on Craigslist inspired me to finally take some snaps of the monster and post an ad in the free section.Free as in no money just come and get it. Free as in if I were a fool I’d pay you to come take it.

I got responses 10 minutes after I published the ad which was not sugar coated at all. I said it wasn’t perfect, huge, needed a van to transport it and needed more than one person to come get it.When I checked my email today there were 12 more emails asking about it.

I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. How does one decide this? I will give it to the 1st guy who wrote. But if he doesn’t like it when he sees it I will probably give it to the charity that wrote to me today.

Wham Bam 32″ Sony

Once again the phenomenon that is Craigslist has come through for us and our acquisitive ways. About 3 months ago, our 28 inch TV just burned out.There was a strange, burning chemical smell for about 10 minutes and then the darn thing just died. I had my 19 inch Samsung in the back room so at least we weren’t without a TV,entirely. The horror. But going from a 28″ to a 19″ screen was a big difference. We never got used to how small that size screen really is. Our living room is just a space we made with sofas and tables in the main area of our loft. The small screen got a bit swallowed in the large area.

Anyway, I went on Craigslist, saw the TV– a Sony Trinitron 32 inch screen, liked the price ($99) so we called and arranged to come pick it up within the hour. Of course I didn’t go-my boyfriend and his brother went-they are the muscle-I am the brains,ha ha.They forgot the remote (of course) these TV’s all need their remotes or you can’t do any adjustments of color or whatever. I called the seller and asked him if maybe he could mail it to us. He didn’t answer– I think he was afraid we weren’t happy with the TV and wanted our money back!

The color tube is a little damaged on the right hand side upper and lower corners but just a small bit. There is a green blob and a blue blob. I always thought that that was a sign the TV was on it’s way out–my boyfriend assured me it is not. However, he was supposed to turn the set on and check it out before buying it and this was something he should’ve noticed.You’d think between the 2 of them they would’ve seen this flaw. I mean I saw it right away!

I guess my boyfriend put my 19″ TV on his brother’s bed. And somehow it ended up on the floor. I have no idea how. I heard a really loud crash and there it was broken in half on the floor. Who puts a TV on a bed? You don’t put a TV on a bed!
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Men.
Footnote.While looking for a desk in Craigslist ‘furniture for sale’ I saw this:3 adjustable shelves. Light wood fits with any decorum.

I’ve succumbed to a TV show, part two,Seasons 1 and 2

I was able to track down all the DVD s from Blockbuster and watched the 1st and 2cnd season of Grey’s Anatomy.I’m so out of it that I thought that was it.Turns out there is another season,the 3rd season…but it isn’t out to rent yet. I survived the ribbing I got for wanting to watch my stories (it is a soap, you know) not sure how gracefully my roommates will take another DVD marathon. Although I did try to watch while they were asleep, I was caught a few times by the baseball fiend.

So how was it? Well, it’s a weepy drama set in a hospital. Almost every patient admitted almost dies (drama) or if they survive – they or their family invariably have some story to tell or a solemn speech to make that teaches our interns a valuable Life Lesson(learning). The interns are close(hugging) even though from the beginning we were told they would by vying for one favored position, etc.

What did I like? I love Sandra Oh from way back,Double Happiness,Last Night and Sideways in which she was brilliant. I don’t really like Isiah Washington and their relationship was only made palatable to me because of Sandra Oh. George O’Malley bugs the hell out of me.Whatsit ? T.R. Night? From reading Grey’s Anatomy fan blogs I gathered that Washington called Night a gay slur and I guess outed him so Washington was fired…ohhhh.

I will spare you my run-down of rest of the cast and how I feel about their characters or acting styles.

The love stuff. There is a lot of love stuff. It’s a soap. Love stuff is the glue of any soap. I have no time for George or Callie.Meredith and Derek end season 2 with a bang and thank God. That gets rid of the preternaturally insipid,no chin having Chris O’ Donnell vet character… But not for one second did I believe that Meredith’s boyfriend’s wife coming back on the scene was anything other than a plot device so that we’d all be roiling with anticipation for their inevitable getting back together.

Duh.

There are the cameos by famous actors. Christina Ricci,Brooke Smith and Rosanna Arquette were the most memorable. Rosanna’s was ridiculously silly but memorable.

What Grey’s has that kept me watching was a lot of on screen chemistry and over the top dramatic plot twists.An unexploded artillery shell in a man’s chest and he doesn’t die but the shell does explode once it is out of his body… A rogue shooter who returns to finish the job and of course shoots Dr.Burke(Isiah Washington) on his way back to perform a heart transplant.

Sometimes the show made me cringe when it got too mushy or too learny-huggy but my credibility is shot because I did watch about 37 episodes in one week. I can’t really come off as someone who can take it or leave it at this point.

One last thing. Ellen Pompeo (Meredith) is very, very thin. During any scene that called for her to eat something it always looked like she was not really eating.She does not convince as an eater of food.

Control of the Remote

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How to keep control of the remote control: a users guide to not watching anything sports related.

I have a roommate who is obsessed with watching men play with their balls. Big balls or little balls.It doesn’t seem to matter. If no game is on he will watch a sports radio program. Radio about sports. On TV.The only thing worse then a sports game is men talking about a sports game on the radio and seeing it broadcast on TV.

If no game is on he will watch the stats of any given game of the past week. He will watch sports talk shows,sports documentaries. Sports movies. As long as there are men,balls and uniforms involved.

As a girl growing up I was forced to watch sports. I was outnumbered. I did enjoy Pro-Wrestling, lard slamming, as we affectionately termed it.
But that was because it was so camp.andrethegiant.jpg
Here is a picture of the famous Andre the Giant.Probably the most famous wrestler. I mean, I even know who he is.

There is nothing camp about professional sports games.They are long and repetitive. Someone throws/hits/catches/kicks a ball. Snore.

So in order to never have to watch another sports program when I want to watch something on TV I have some Plans.

Plan A: never leave the sofa and hold remote in hand. If have to leave sofa take remote with me.

Plan B: once in awhile I may have to leave the sofa. I may have to leave the house. There is no viable plan for this as even I can’t(yet) sink low enough to take the remote with me out of the house. Plan B: unresolved.

Plan C: hide the remote. Magically find the remote upon returning to the house/sofa.

Plan D:have a hard heart. I am a pussy. My roommate will approach me and ask me how long I will be watching whatever it is I am watching that is preventing him from watching the men and their balls. I will say 6 hours.

Plan E:block ESPN with my access to parental controls. I am the only one on the bill.I can actually do this. I have to do Plan D first however.
Plan F: get roommate a girlfriend.Then maybe he will go to her house and watch sports on her TV.