Day 42: "Rocky"

Well, as it turns out, bodies in motion eventually need to rest. I arrived back to my apartment at 6AM this morning after a full week of travel and decided to take just a little nap before facing reentry... 10 hours later, I woke up feeling dazed from a dream in which I was drowning in the fast current of a river and, at the same time, attempting, while I drowned, to find a flight status on my BlackBerry. My ears were still painfully congested from flying, making it impossible for me to blow my nose; and I was thirsty and feeling more than a little down.

Was I getting sick? I drank orange juice and made chamomile tea. Did I just need coffee? Maybe - but I wasn't going to have any at 4PM and risk being up all night. Was I a little sad about being in my cold apartment in NYC, by myself? Even my cat's away staying with my mother for the month because I'll be traveling so much. Maybe.

I tried flipping the TV on but there wasn't anything to keep my attention. I dragged a week's worth of newspapers in off my doorstep and did a topline scan. My packed bags sat there begging to be unpacked. Then my eye hit the NetFlix envelopes I'd been carrying around the country with me for a week.

Most people I'm friends with simply put up with the fact that I go dead when the conversation turns to TV and movies. In short, I've been busy at night for the last decade or so - either working late, dating, taking classes, or out to dinner with friends - and frankly I don't really feel like I've missed anything important. I do enjoy one or two shows on HBO, CBS's "Sunday Morning," and will occasionally keep up with the Kardashians. But, other than that, I'm out of the loop and experience many awkward moments at the water cooler... and so I decided recently to try to catch up.

I signed up for NetFlix. It's not going very well. For two weeks I've been carting around the same three DVDs I ordered, wondering how/when to watch them. It's just not in my chemical makeup to sit down for 30 minutes, or 2 hours, with the express purpose of watching a show. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it once I'm there, but getting myself there is like pulling teeth.

The first DVDs I ordered were season one of "Mad Men," which EVERYONE tells me I MUST watch - and the movie "Rocky." Now, I always incorrectly assumed that "Rocky" was a fictional story about a guy who was a boxer, played by Sylvester Stallone; but the folks at work told me I have to see this movie because in it Rocky runs. I don't get it. Anyway, we have a big team meeting this upcoming week in Philadelphia which is, apparently, where Rocky lived and trained - and my colleagues think it would be fun if I did my training on the same staircase where Rocky trained. I ordered the movie so I'd know what the heck they're talking about and it'll be meaningful to me too when I do this staircase run on Thursday morning and they take pictures.

I just realized I don't actually know how to use my DVD player so I might not be able to watch the movie tonight. Sigh...