sick days

I've spent the past week battling a stomach virus of death, and that meant a lot of time in front of the television. Unfortunately, due to some active Tivo watching last weekend and the World Series, there wasn't much on the tivo when I stayed home from work Tuesday, just the most recent episode of the O.C. Feeling too out of it to even tackle that, I collapsed on the couch and just went from channel to channel, watching whatever caught my interest.

That sort of random TV watching is something I very rarely do these days. For me, the tivo has made channel-surfing an obsolete activity. If at any given time I have things that must be watched, shows I like that are waiting patiently for me, why would I watch random crap? But on Tuesday, oh boy did I watch a lot of random crap. Even my old standbys--E true hollywood story, law & order, etc--weren't on, so I watched some things I usually never watch. For example:

A Baby Story: I have watched A Baby Story (as well as A Makeover Story, A Personal Story, A Wedding Story, and A Dating Story) before, but an episode about natural childbirth is not something you should watch when it feels like your stomach is trying to exit your body.

Oprah: The last time I watched an episode of Oprah, it was an episode about journaling shown during my Women & Television class in college. I cried. Not just a few tears, we're talking uncontrollable bawling. I am proud that I did not cry this time. It was the episode about how a pedophile was caught after Oprah showed his picture. Although it's a great thing, it wasn't a very moving episode, but then again, what can really be moving when you're trying not to puke?

Murder, She Wrote: The episode I saw featured all kinds of 80's stars and was about a murder at a Napa winery. I watched most of it with my eyes closed and yet still didn't miss anything, but it was oddly comforting, like a very quaint Law & Order.

One Life to Live: There's something endearing about the fact that I haven't watched even one episode of this show in over 2 years and I was still sucked in, able to figure out most of what was going on. Characters on soap operas are so deliciously evil.

I watched other things, of course, but those are the three that stand out. Despite being so very sick, it was actually a little bit fun to guiltlessly watch random TV for a day and escape the pressure of the tivo and the pressure to be productive. I'd like to think it made me feel a little bit better, too.