January 30, 2009

My Courageous Act (Seriously)

After much back and forth in my brain and a slight depression, I decided to just do it: I got rid of cable.

I’m not talking about a simple elimination of extra channels—I mean actually getting rid of EVERYTHING. No local channels, no basic lineup…nothing. I did this mainly to reduce some of my unnecessary expenses (going in line with my financial goals for this year), and also because Comcast royally pissed me off.

When we moved, our original bundle promotional price was over so the lady suggested I upgrade to a super bundle which would be cheaper for a year than the regular bundle. So I said sure. Heck, having HBO, Showtime and Starz PLUS many extra channels like Discovery Health and BBC America was like my dream cable lineup.

Unfortunately, the lady failed to mention that I would be charged twice in December. I paid what I thought was my bill on December 15th and went on my merry little way. THEN, I checked the online bill pay service to see what I would owe in January and saw that it was $149. Okay. Then right before what I thought was my due date (the 15th) I checked again to see that the total had shot up to $305. After I had a heart attack, I called Comcast and got some lady who told me something about charging this and that for this and that and this was why that was like that blah blah blah. She said the bill would be due on January 30th. Okay.

THEN I get an automated call on my cell phone the next day telling me that it is urgent I call Comcast. So I did. And the lady that day gave me a totally different story about why I owed $305. Apparently, the $149 was due on December 31st and the extra amount was my next bill amount. She told me my account was past due and my service might be cut off.

After another heart attack at the fact that I’ve never had anything in my life past due, I got angry and reamed that lady out. I can’t believe that Comcast did not inform me of this additional charge and my new due date. I never received a bill or a notification. Nothing. Not to mention the fact that before this second call, I had talked to Comcast the day before and that lady did not mention anything about my account being past due.

I’ve cancelled my cable and phone service through them but did keep the internet. It’s actually okay. Heck, I even upgraded to the higher speed, which is nice. The problem is that I MISS TELEVISION. IT ASKS FOR SO LITTLE FROM ME. JUST TO TURN MY HEAD IN ITS GENERAL DIRECTION AND LET ME BASK IN ITS WARM GLOW.

I’m serious. I love tv. But what I’ve learned in the few days I’ve been without it is that I never actually WATCHED anything on it. I have the internet, but I can’t think of one tv show I want to watch. I realize that I’ve mostly been watching reruns of stuff I’ve seen a billion times, real-life crime stories and mindlessly flipping. When I’m bored I’ll just got lay there and flip. When I want to take a nap, I turn the tv on for background noise. The truth is that the tv is always on around here for the comforting familiarity it provides and the noise to fill the void.

Now it’s gone and I’m at a loss of what to do with myself half the time. I know this will pass as I get used to it, and forgive my patheticness, but I did only get rid of television this past Wednesday, ok! I know that all the stuff that I’ve wanted to do has been hindered by the fact that I’m way tired and all I want to do is lay there and do nothing.

Eesh. I’ll be wandering around aimlessly for a few more days probably, and until this feeling passes, I miss you tv. I can’t wait for things to get better so we can be reunited.

Anybody have any good show suggestions for me to watch? I've checked out a few episodes of 30 Rock which I am now finding completely lovable. What other network shows are good out there?

6 comments:

  1. Comcast isn't good, but I have to use it anyway. I don't know where to get high-speed internet. The Comcast guy came the other day to install internet and cable at my place, then he said that the whole building is out and I have to reschedule. So, I won't have internet nor cable for a week or two. Comcast sucks.

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  2. Yes they do. I will say that their internet is pretty speedy, which is why I decided to keep it with them.

    But FYI, Comcast in Virginia compared to Comcast in Washington is one million times suckier. Man, at least in WA the menus looked nice and you could search and do all this cool stuff. Here, omg, the menu looks like a cheap piece of crap. It looks nothing like Comcast I had in WA.

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  3. I hope you can move back home one day. We miss you.

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  4. When I lived by myself, I didn't have cable. I have a roommate now and she watches it more than I do (but still, not much). We should totally just have the internet, too...

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  5. I find that living with tv has made me more productive in a good way. It helps alleviate the brain drain from mindless tv watching!

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