We've gotta move these color TVs

I stopped for gas on my way home tonight, and was delighted by what I found when I got out of the car:

The TVs over the pumps were broken!

It was SO nice to stand there, enjoying a mild, wet night, listening to gas gurgling into my car and traffic whooshing by. No loudspeakers blaring music or ads. No glaring, gabbling TV screen showing disjointed little sound bites.

It really scares me that gas corporations (yes, you, Sunoco) now think people need to be entertained (and advertised to) for the few minutes it takes to fill up your car. Is it really going to kill a customer to stand still and not do anything but watch the pump run for a couple of minutes? Do they feel bad that they don't want us to talk on our cell phones at the pump, even though there's no proof of anyone blowing themselves up this way, so they give us TV instead? Maybe they're just trying to distract us from rising gas prices? Or is it that important to fill up every spare moment in life with advertising?

The overhead music I don't always mind, because it sometimes plays random 80s songs I love, but these TVs over the pumps are just offensive. The volume is always too loud, and there's always some frenetic Ryan Seacrest clone jumping around and/or yelling. You have to turn away not to look at it, but you're still assaulted by the racket it makes. I try to go to quieter stations without these things, but tonight I spaced on getting gas until this station was the only one left on my way. But I lucked out. The TVs were sitting there with jumbled frozen screens that resembled those old emergency-broadcast test patterns.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a TV hater. I own multiple idiot boxes, and I even have cable. I just don't see any need for customers to be subjected to blaring TVs in public places, except maybe in a sports bar, where watching a game is part of the overall reason for being there. Or if something major is going on (on the 9/11 level, not the O.J. White Bronco Chase level). Otherwise, why do we need more noise, ads and glare in our lives? Do we all truly need to watch Dr. Phil while waiting for an oil change? Turn. It. Off.

Speaking of that whole thing with talking on your cell phone while pumping, did you know that Wawa has cell phone Big Brothers? A couple of years ago, as I was finishing a cell phone conversation while getting gas at one of those vast canopied gas-pump clusters, the music stopped and this guy got on the PA system: "Ma'am at Pump Four? Attention, ma'am at Pump Four? Could you turn off your cell phone please?" Pretty much everyone pumping gas stopped and swiveled to check out which idiot's being busted at Pump Four, including me. Oh. I'm at Pump Four. CLICK.

Here we are now! Entertain us!

Today was one of those days where everything just teeters out of control. We woke up to rain pounding on the sleet and snow we got last night. School was open (we called to check) so I got everyone ready, husband and kids set off and I soon jumped in the shower for what would be pretty much my only relaxing moment of the day. Just as I was finishing up, Melrose ran into the bathroom yelling something about school being canceled. Seems the teachers arrived to find a pipe had broken and flooded a couple of the classrooms, so a decision was made to close for repairs. I took on kid duty all morning so Chip could work, then headed to the office at lunchtime. In the meantime, all sorts of random old projects were popping up left and right (my inbox was like a Whack-A-Mole game) and it seems I am now needed to meet with clients offsite all day tomorrow, even though I really need to be here at my desk writing a report or proofreading several others. And a church prayer series I was planning to attend tonight got canceled due to the weather, so it'll be a long evening here trying to get stuff done. All of which feels like too little, too late. I've promised my time to too many people this week.

I've been reasonably good about Lent so far--I made it to church on Ash Wednesday and this past Sunday, and have been (mostly) doing my readings at night, staying caught up, and not falling asleep during them. But I'm also feeling broken, low, and tired this time of year, and wondering what kind of miracle it will take to get myself back together. I feel like I spend so much time and energy on things that ultimately don't matter much, and not enough time on things that do. How do I change my life to match my priorities? Where do I even begin?

Well, enought thought about that for now. I need to try and actually accomplish something of value to my superiors tonight, then go home and write up, like, 50 valentines for the kids' classmates and teachers tomorrow. I'm sure some of the moms will go all out again and have an entire goody bag to go with each valentine. There's always at least a few who do that. Not me!

They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot

As if I don't have enough to do, I decided that I finally had my act together enough to put together a blog about historic preservation. A couple of my preservationist buddies in DC have had blogs or websites for awhile, and I've been looking for a way to explore it from my professional perspective as someone who is literally out there on the street, seeing how people treat their old buildings and the misinformation that seems to be prevalent. In some small way, I'm hoping The Hysterical Preservationist might be a place to dispel myths and misconceptions, dissect some of the issues, and clarify a perspective that is so often at odds with the American Way.

If I can keep up with it, that is.

Moving on. Lent is fast approaching, and I'm trying to figure out what self-disciplinary measure I should take this year. In the past I've tried giving up junk food, or I've attempted to be a more positive person. Last year I tried to take some time every evening to read the daily Scripture and pray, because along with the part of me that loves to read books, my spiritual life is spotty at best these days. This tactic worked for a couple of weeks, but I kept falling asleep in the midst of it and finally got so far behind on the readings that I lost motivation to catch up. My church publishes a wonderful little lectionary brochure with the day's lesson and a short meditation written by a mix of ministers and parishioners. It's really cool, especially if you know the person who wrote the thought of the day. I'm going to try the reading/prayer tactic again, but I'm wondering if there is something else to commit to, like daily exercise or something that will help keep me on a good mental-health track.

I also decided whose job I want most: Andy Rooney's! How good does he have it? He gets to go on TV every week, be a total curmudgeon, and snipe about various topics...and he gets paid huge amounts of money for his bitch sessions. Nobody tells him to stop being such a downer or speculates about whether he had a facelift. He probably can set his own taping schedule. I would love to be a professional snarkmonger--which is probably why I blog and send my friends acerbic e-mails. The only thing I wouldn't like about it is when right-wingers create and forward racist hoax e-mails supposedly authored by me.