30/30 Bucket List: Watch more movies like Frozen

That's what I do. Watch movies and read. Sometimes I pretend to write, but I'm not fooling anyone. Oh, and I go to the mailbox.

- Nicole Krauss





It took 118 days for me to miss cable.

I was standing in the kitchen putting the lunch dishes in the dishwasher and feeling wiped out. I was tired and recovering from a cold. Not yet exhausted enough to sleep, not enough energy to read a book. And no DVD or Netflix offering came to mind.

I wish we had cable and I could just turn on the TV and watch whatever is on. 

Then...

Did I just miss cable? How long has it been?

I blamed it on the upcoming season premier of 19 Kids and Counting that I wouldn't get to watch. But I was missing the convenience of just hitting one button and having hours of mindless offerings to watch. (Or, as I prefer it, to sleep through.)

I decided to search Netflix for something.

These unemployed days have not been the most productive of my life. (Though I am trying to convince myself that things like productivity and efficiency aren't as important as I've always made them out to be.) And of these unemployed days, this one would be especially unproductive.

But as I scrolled through the Netflix headings, I decided I could at least mark one thing off my bucket list.  I just had to find a movie vaguely similar to Frozen and watch it. Much easier than going to Europe or completing a spacewalk.

I settled on Ella Enchanted. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but also not the worst. It had a princess and she had to break free from what was given to her as a gift but had become a curse. I think it counts. Plus, I do love Anne Hathaway.

This has been far from a TV-free summer. (I discovered How I Met Your Mother on Netflix shortly after I lost cable.) But before we dropped the cable, there were plenty of times when turning on the tube was my default when I just wanted to zone out.

It made me wonder how much time TV had sapped from my life without me even realizing it.

Another of my bucket list challenges is to go one week without any television or internet. It is one I am looking forward to.

I am hoping to complete it during a week when the weather is nice so I can distract myself with the beautiful fall foliage. But even as I plan and prepare, I wonder what dependencies on television and internet I will uncover unexpectedly.

Or I could just distract myself with another movie.