(Time by Eric at http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikvanhannen/537167308/)

I'm on my lunch break.  I've given up my office space for colleagues to debrief after a training, so I'm sitting in the "lobby" of the suite, looking rather like an administrative assistant (except they get better chairs than the one I'm sitting in, which I stole from the seating area no one uses) or a student worker (if someone would be kind enough to think I look that young).

I could spend my lunch break in the break room.  However, in the break room there is a television.  A very large screen tv that someone must have no longer needed at home, likely having upgraded to a flat screen.  Every day from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. a lovely lady named Sandra watches her soap opera while eating her lunch.

I find this fascinating, disturbing, and inspiring.

Fascinating, because she's not my grandmother's age and I truly believed that soap operas were for old people.  Blame Edna.
Disturbing, because, well, it's a soap opera.  I mean, please.  Every time I walk in, someone is crying or dying.
Inspiring, because *Sandra doesn't care.*

She doesn't care that most people think soap operas are ridiculous.  She doesn't care that no one wants to eat in the break room with her because they'd be subjected to the soap opera.  She doesn't care that this is a university and it just doesn't look good to be watching your soap opera.  Every day she happily microwaves her lunch, turns on the tv, and spends a blissful hour escaping into the dramatic lives of others.  She likes what she likes, and she takes time to enjoy it.

These thoughts coincide with the current chapter I'm reading in The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (which debuted at #2 on the NY Times Best Seller list!), which is about fun.  She and I share the inability to stop working and have fun, whether motivated by guilt ("My To do list is too long to stop and watch a movie!") or inertia ("The kind of fun I want to have takes too much energy to do or too much time to get the stuff out!").  I'm contemplating how to stop that bad habit (which in a nice light is called "being responsible and getting stuff done") and put more fun into my life.  I'm open to your ideas. 

Thankfully I think writing is fun.  So while Sandra enjoys her soap opera, I decided to write this blog entry.  Thanks for taking the time to join me.