If You Can't Say Anything Nice...

There are many, many benefits to living sans TV.

Oh wait, let me clarify, I actually have a TV, it just doesn't get any channels. And that, Blog Readers, is by choice.

I gave up television nearly 10 years ago. At the time, it was a fiscal choice between high speed internet or cable. I chose internet, I think, for obvious reasons. Mainly, I'm an information junkie and wouldn't know what to do without the freedom to wiki anything and everything at a moment's notice.

Still...it was, at first, difficult. Now though, I rarely think about it.

Except today.

Today I'm thinking about it because I am really awfully glad to be without it.

Why, you ask?

Because it occurred to me that everyone I know is practically jumping for joy and clapping their hands that mid-term elections are TODAY and that means TOMORROW there will be no more political ads. Political ads of which I've seen none.

Think about it.

If you don't watch television and listen only to public radio as I do, there is virtually no involuntary exposure to attack ads and negative campaigning. I've been receiving several spam messages in my spam e-mail folder and I've certainly received snail mailings and phone calls that go unanswered. However, those are all relatively passive tactics to sway my vote and are easily ignored/disposed of by me without a second thought.

I read up on the ballot measures and researched my candidates and judges. Not by idly sitting on the couch, fuming during commercial breaks, but by reading newspapers and putting my google skills to the test.

That's not to say being TV-less in a TV world keeps me from high anxiety during election season. If you were privy to my last blog (and no, you can't have the link if you don't already have it), you are fully aware of my political angst during the 2008 presidential election. And I've had angst during this mid-term election just based on the information my research uncovered. I've refrained from mentioning it here so as to try to avoid A) a political flame war in my happy place and B) because I didn't want to suffer 2008-like "I can't believe she/he/they said that in their outloud voice" syndrome...which included hives.

But! I cannot imagine how much worse my anxiety would be if I were subjected to a constant barrage of attack ads on a daily basis for an entire 12 months. I'd be like...an M&M without the candy coating. You know, meltdown all over your hands.

So there.

The election season is nearly over. I am a permanent absentee ballot receiver and so, even though I forgot to mail my ballot in by the deadline and still had to go to the polls to drop my ballot off, I didn't have to wait in line and I still totally got a sticker.

Now, I'm at home, without the political pundits blaring in the background, enjoying a glass of wine and not thinking about what tomorrow is going to bring.

That is, I'm not thinking about tomorrow and politics. I am thinking about the possibility of a tomorrow in the near future starring a bittersweet ganache making lesson. But, you know, those are pleasant thoughts. Not angsty thoughts.

And has nothing to do with TV.