Self Care
My new job has a self-care perk—$100 per quarter to spend on something that makes you happy. Anything? Yes, anything that helps you relax and enjoy life outside of work.
It’s use it or lose it, but the problem with the word “anything” is that it makes it hard to narrow down what would bring the most happiness. But the clear winner right now is putting mystery-related content into my eye holes. So I bought myself a subscription to AcornTV.
There is nothing that stopped me from doing this prior to the self care perk. But the fact that someone else treated me to it made me all the more giddy as I flipped through the mystery show list. I have so many Veras to get me through winter. It affected my mood the rest of the day. I kept thinking about curling up in bed at night with everyone, watching UK (and Canadian, Irish, Australians, and New Zealand) mysteries.
And then the ChickieNob and I tried to plug my phone into the television to watch a documentary that night. And it didn’t work. We could see the show on the phone, but it wouldn’t transfer to the television so we both could watch it. We tried numerous tricks and enlisted the Wolvog to help, who finally informed us that the only way we could get this to work is to get a Roku or similar device and log into my new account on this new piece of hardware.
And suddenly my totally awesome self care thing didn’t feel like self care at all. It felt like one more thing I had to deal with after being super excited about it all day.
I wanted it to be easy, but moreover, I just wanted something for myself. Something I didn’t think about anyone else while getting or using. It was just my thing to make me happy. No waiting-for-hardware-so-everyone-else-could-enjoy-it-too necessary.
So I’m starting to watch my mysteries by myself, which feels weird. I don’t know why it feels weird because I read books by myself. But I never watch television by myself. But this is the solution I’m going with until we get hardware and other people can join in because I don’t want to wait to start watching the mysteries. I just want to watch them when I want to watch them.
Now if only they’d get the Great Canadian Baking Show, I’d be set.
3 comments
You can’t use a laptop and HDMI cord? That’s my go-to solution for everything that doesn’t have an app on my not-particularly-Smart TV. My phone also screen duplicates to the TV but the quality is absolutely terrible.
But also, it’s self-care, not family care. You should look for something to watch that you know only you will like. And…you can use your next $100 to buy a Roku or something. 😁
WAIT, there’s a Great Canadian Baking Show? We are going backwards in The Great British Baking Show, and we’ve reached pre-Prue and pre-Noel and it is filling us with sadness. I wish they would put out another season!
That is an amazing perk, although I could see how it would make you feel the pressure to make sure that the $100 was the MOST happiness making thing. Now I’m trying to think of what I would spend that on in the name of self-care. Hmmmmmm. Was the Acorn subscription the whole $100?
@Jess, yes, there is a Great Canadian Baking Show (although I have not really watched it). It’s on CBC. If your cable package doesn’t include that channel, hook up some rabbit ears or an old rotary antenna and point it across the lake, lol. 😉
@Mel, I have no idea how these things work, but I’m sure there must be a solution. Call in Geek Squad?