In the 10 years that Hotstuff and I have been married, we have not had two very specific things.
1. A dishwasher
and
2. Cable television
The Dishwasher....
Every pot, every pan, every piece of silverware, every bottle, every last dish has all been soaked, scrubbed and washed by hand. We have lived in a few places and none of them had a dishwasher! You would think that a dishwasher was standard for all humble abodes but not the case for Hotstuff and I. For some reason, we haven't had the pleasure of a proper kitchen, let alone the advantage of a dishwasher.
Our current apartment is two bedroom, one bath, 700 square feet of squishyness for four people. But when your rent is $500 a month you don't complain... too loudly or too much, you are just simply grateful for the roof over your head hasn't sprung a leak just yet. This apartment complex was built back in the 70's; back in the day before microwaves cost over $500 but according to Wikipedia, dishwashers were standard back then.
So what happened to us?!?!?
Who knows but I have no sympathy for any child whose chore it is to load or unload the dishwasher. They will never know how a pot, pan, plate or cup really gets cleaned or how much time it takes to make sure every angle of a dish is scrubbed or the best way to get your dishes cleaned. It has been so long that I don't know if I could even load a dishwasher properly anymore. For now, we scrub by hand every dish, every utensil, every pot and every glass. I am anxious for that day when I know that I will have truly made it is the day there is a dishwasher in my very own proper kitchen.
Cable Television...
As newlyweds, you typically don't have the funds to have cable or much anything else. Hotstuff and I have found that Bruce Springsteen had the right idea with his song: "57 Channels and Nothing On." We never had the desire for cable television but we never lapsed on our monthly membership to Blockbuster. Growing up, my family lived outside of town and the only television you could get was cable. No bunny ears on the planet could ever harness enough power for signal for your basic stations. You would need your own satellite dish just to make the snow on television take some shape.
My mother got basic cable and I never really found anything worth watching. I never found much difference between what I get now on my digital television that picks up 23 channels and cable television that gave me 230 channels. We have learned to get along without it until.... cable got some pretty awesome shows.
Okay... let me back up a bit. We have been able to get along without cable until Netflix.
Sorry, I have to back up just a little bit more before Netflix. HULU!!!!
STOP! I am getting way ahead of myself so let me go back to the beginning with the VCR.
In the beginning there was the VCR and the Black Market but that is a story for another blog. Then came the VCR and Miami Vice and my mother thought it to be grand. You see, my mother had a huge crush on Don Johnson and she NEVER missed an episode of Miami Vice (cue theme music, speed boats, flamingos, bad hair do's and pink shirts). She would record the show and then go back and watch it at a later time. So taking a page from my mothers book, Hotstuff and I had a few shows that we enjoyed and would do the very same. Press record, turn off the TV and once everything was said and done we could go back at a later time and watch our programs fast forwarding through every commercial. Our VCR later died and were S.O.L.
The great idea of a DVR and TiVo would be ideal for our needs but that involves getting cable which equals more money leaving our pockets. So instead, we turn to the Internet. HULU, is fabulous but most of my favorite programs are not available until eight days after it has aired. Leaving me perpetually one week/episode behind for the season. Enter Netflix and one of the many reasons I love Fall! Around the time that a new season begins Netflix (on the Watch Instantly menu) updates the shows with the episodes from the previous season. Some shows I can watch quickly enough and get all caught up just in time for the season premier so that I can once again be one episode behind for the new season.
Then cable television gets some pretty awesome shows. For instance, DEXTER. I love this show!!! It is one of the most brilliant shows on television. Scratch that- It is the MOST BRILLIANT SHOW on television. We like this show so much that Hotstuff dressed up as Dexter for Halloween last year. But alas, this brilliant show on Showtime can only be accessed by cable television. No such luck on waiting the next day to watch it on HULU or the Showtime website. Leaving us forever a season behind. I have a couple of other favorite shows on cable that I thoroughly enjoy: True Blood on HBO and Leverage on TNT.
While everyone else finds out how Sookie Stackhouse dealt with her break up with Bill and Eric and if she will finally decided which vampire is the true love of her life (which better be Bill Compton because he just is!) and who is this mysterious "authority", I must wait to find out months later when the new season starts. Then someone told me the ending of the last season of Dexter and the suspense is KILLING ME!!!! Because I know and I was waiting for it to happen and I didn't think it would happen and I am shocked it happened but did it have to happen? and how did it happen?
So what do Dishwashers and Cable Television have to do with anything????
They both happen to be standards in almost every home. Our standards and priorities have changed from twenty years ago, when cable was a luxury and not a necessity. Washing my dishes by hand doesn't bother me. Yes it is inconvenient and takes time. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to just load a dishwasher up, put the soap in, press a few buttons and walk away. All of that would save me (and my Hotstuff because he does the dishes too!) a lot of time, leaving us free to do more.
Not having cable doesn't bother me either. I have gotten used to being behind a season or a week in my favorite shows but I have ways of watching those shows so that I don't have to sit through commercials and I can watch them at my convenience. I am not bound to the time table that my television station dictate. By not having these simple bare neccesities, I have been able to let go and find more important things that give structure to my life- my family.
In ten years time will we have cable? Probably not and that is okay but I damn well better have a dishwasher.
