Binging

Moderation in all things.  That's what we are taught.  Heck it's what I try to teach my kids.  I'm a firm believer in moderation.  Moderation is the way of science.  More an more we find that if chemicals are present in a moderate amount they are less damaging then if there is a lot or a little.  We know that if we engage in alcohol, or pain killers, or even physical activities occasionally, or moderately, there may be some health benefits.  Yet, I'm not so moderate myself.  I tend to binge.

It's not just in one area of my life either.  It seems to be most things.  It's like everything in my life is on a rotation and when it's time for one activity to take is precedence I binge on that activity until I can't take anymore and then it swings out of rotation.  Some of the rotation is fast, some is slow, but for most things in my life they can be found on the unbalanced wheel of my binging habits.

I don't know that any of this is overly dangerous, although it's clearly not balanced, and I'm sure some of my binging like my binge on chocolate full fat milk (that was a fun binge) are not entirely healthy.  Yet, there it is.  I binge on eating large meals, to not even eating three meals a day.  I go on video game binges where all I want to do is play every chance I get.  I go on cleaning binges where I try to molecularly sterilize and meticulously organize every area of my house - like nesting on overdrive with a side order of OCD.  I binge on social activities, wanting to go when the binge is on and even experiencing serious anxiety about leaving the house when it's off.  I know I binge on watching TV.

Right now I'm on a TV binge cycle.  Since we don't have TV service my husband has been feeding my binge by making trips every 5 days to the local video store, renting five shows for five dollars and bringing them home.  I've been back watching shows I picked up this year since both have multiple seasons and hulu only has so much of each show.  It's really bad timing since this is not only the off season but the run up to season premieres.  It's not movies either.  In fact when the TV binge is on I DO NOT want a movie.  I need continuous character development.  I need prolonged stories, preferably exciting with engaging plot points not centered on romantic relationships.

I'm binging hard on Eureka (the Sci-Fi show), even catching up on Bones (which I hope to address Bruce's comment from that post soon).  I got the end mini series from Torchwood, but when all these are gone, I fear my binge will be over.  It may even be over before then.  The hours are reducing to a couple in the evening.  I feel a cleaning binge coming (started last weekend really, but time has not been on my side), and that's good because we will have company in two weeks and since my surgery in January I haven't felt up to cleaning really, and definitely not up to catching up with what hasn't been done the last year while I was on prolonged bed rest and then the post surgery bit.

I'm also binging on books.  It's been so long since I've sat down and read books!  My husband likes and dislikes this binge.  He likes it because he knows there is so much I wished I have read, my English teachers didn't push the classics much in high school.  In the past he's helped me binge on Asimov and Nancy Kress, and of course I binged all the Harry Potter books.  In May, I started checking out stuff for me when we went to the library on our weekly Wednesday trip.  Of course every book I want isn't "in" the library when I want it, but now I'm getting very comfortable with the request service and have been working through both the Percy Jackson books (a great fun read) and the Dresden Novels (on Fool Moon now).

Percy Jackson is a bit difficult because it's extremely popular.  My husband and I are both reading it and the library is giving us only a limited time with each book because of the wait list.  This is hard for me and part of why I gave up on the library as a girl.  I'm slightly dyslexic and it takes me longer to read.  Plus with all the calls for Mommy, it's hard to read.  I don't think I'll ever be as addicted as my mother who reads at stoplights, but at the height of the binge you may wonder if I might.

With that I'm off to the school and then the library.  I have a kindergartener to pick up (for the last time at noon, the school is going to allow her to go all day in exchange for volunteer service) and the kids have library books to return.  I have a Percy Jackson book to get back and another to request.  I have TV to watch tonight, and a cleaning binge in the making.  Some time today I might even get hungry enough to want to eat.  There's also this pesky binge of self reflection that seems to be consuming all my non entertainment hours.....