Lazy Sundays: A Strange New Year's Resolution

By Isabel Sobel on February 4, 2014

This year I made a very unique and somewhat strange New Year’s resolution: to watch more TV, especially on what I like to call “lazy Sundays.” Now before all you “2014 is the year I finally start going to the gym” resolution-ers peg this as a cop out, you should understand a little something about me.

I don’t stop. Ever.

Ever since I was a little girl, family and friends coined the nickname “Busy Izzy” to illustrate my energetic nature.  My parents often joked that I only had one speed–high speed—and teachers teasingly inquired about whether I had an “off” switch at countless back-to-school nights.Well, enter 2014, 21 years later and that switch has yet to be found, hence my decision for a seemingly counterintuitive New Year’s resolution: To become more of a couch potato.

Prior to 2014, my television and movie games were pathetic. I stopped following TV series when Marissa Cooper died on the OC, and I couldn’t be caught dead in a movie theatre that wasn’t airing one of the Harry Potter films. I consumed most of my news online via Twitter and I had never seen the modern “classics,” such as The Notebook, Forest Gump, and Titanic.

What’s more, my typical living-room experience didn’t extend past Friends reruns, which barely even counted given that I have probably seen each episode over twelve times and merely needed to glance at the TV to comprehend what was going on. However, this scenario made reruns ideal for my busy lifestyle, as they were the perfect backdrop for multitasking with the TV on without having to actually watch the TV. Needless to say, I definitely didn’t participate in lazy Sundays.

So January 1st, 2014 came around, and I started slow, easing into it by starting the hit TV series Scandal. As a Political Science major, I figured “political drama” would be an appropriate genre to get me back in the game. Plus, people seemed to really like it; I had heard that it had won a few Golden-Grammy-Oscar-Choice awards (or whichever is for television). And hey, even a TV non-conformist like me could see that Olivia Pope looks damn good in white.

Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. Over winter break, I spent long hours glued to the couch on my lazy Sundays–something my parents and home friends never thought they would witness. And I didn’t stop at Scandal. Shark Tank, Bar Rescue, How I Met Your Mother, Workaholics, and yes, even The Bachelor, became a few fan favorites. I even ventured into On Demand to watch Despicable Me 1 and 2 (and I proudly found a new obsession: minions), The Internship, and a couple of other cinematic masterpieces that required my attention for longer than the short 30-60 minute time slot of a television show (another feat that was previously unheard of).

A few weeks later I returned to school with something so much greater than (finally!) a working knowledge of pop-culture: a newfound appreciation for down-time. Instead of spending my days procrastinating and my nights at the library, I now spend my days as productive as possible so that my nights and lazy Sundays can be spent unwinding on the couch, sometimes even with a glass of wine.

But why now? Well, as a college senior, I am about to graduate from The University of Michigan and embark on an adventure best known as “The Real World” (not to be confused with the popular MTV drama—though I’m sure they’re more similar than different). I will hopefully find a job that I love or, at least, where I won’t be completely miserable spending my 9-to-5 time slot, move into an affordable apartment in an exciting, cool city, and spend the remainder of my salary on happy hours.

Hey, a girl can dream can’t she?

And in the real world I never want to forget the value of slowing down. Especially on lazy Sundays.

This past month, I have found that the down-time that comes with my newfound TV-watching habit has forced me to give both my mind and body a much needed break, especially with the growing stress of graduation and my looming unemployment. Hopefully, my roommates no longer think I am M.I.A all of the time and are beginning to enjoy my company on weeknights and lazy Sundays as much as I do.

So, as a second-semester senior, I think it is safe to say I am finally beginning to master an art that is familiar to college students everywhere: lazy Sundays in front of the TV. To me, lazy Sundays (and now Monday-Wednesday nights) are a way to sit back, unplug, and appreciate the flow of life around me without texting, tweeting, or instagram-ing every minute of it.

21 years later and my hyperactivity has finally caught up to me. I’m exhausted. Who would have thought that the “off switch” would finally be found, and that this switch was the most obvious one: the glaring, red, power button on the remote.

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