I will admit that our cable bill is one of the most expensive household bills we have.

It's sad. When my electric bill reaches levels close to the cable bill, I freak and run the a/c a bit less. I have even been known to skip coffee to save....the coffee maker, in the process of heating the water, uses more wattage than your furnace!

But every time I think about cutting back on the cable channels, I just can't do it.

Funny b/c we watch TV maybe 5 hours a week.....okay, during hockey season my husband watches more like 20 hours a week.

Yesterday was a rare bum day on the couch with some TV.

I realized that while once the "Hitler channel", the History Channel (at least the HD History Channel) has taken up the market that Discovery, Discovery Times and Discovery Science have abandoned for the stupid reality TV everyone is eating up these days.

I remember when I could actually watch NOVA-like shows on cable! I was so excited that Discovery had television that I liked to watch. Then they moved all the educational TV to the "upgrade" package to include the Science Channel. Discovery was motorcycle, tattoo and other bullshit reality stuff.

The other channel transformations that pissed me off were Court TV and Biography Channel. I remember these channels were the places I could get my fill of serial killers, dead people and mobsters.

Now Court TV is tru TV and I can watch rednecks argue with arresting cops about whether the porch they need to step down from is a milk carton or an actual porch. Or watching people get mangled from some stupid stunt. Biography will offers up some high maintenance, bitchy, bride-to-be drama.

I guess just about every product out there has done this, when I think about it. My nasty love for Chips Ahoy cookies has transformed. I can get extra chips, soft and chewy, colored chips, probably even some with Buffalo Chips - but damn if I can't find the regular count of plain, chocholate chips.

For the time being, History HD is filling my void. The lost tomb of Egypt was a 2 hour special that was followed by a documentary about the Dragon and its existence in different cultures.

I keep having to add channels, to get that 1 channel that fills my need for information. I think maybe they have this all planned out...but by god! I will call it quits when the cable bill is getting close to the mortgage bill.

On another note: I have had some serious dream activity lately (thank you Chantix!)

My entire night seems filled with dream after dream. Normally I have strange, convoluted scenarios that I always make me go "WTF?".

These Chantix dreams have been so different. They are REAL and vivid dreams. There is little to no dream analysis needed. I talk to someone on the phone - I fall asleep - I dream about the person, the scenarios we discuss or what I am thinking about them while awake.

Last night I had a dream about a friend (not a specific friend, one of those faceless people you just know is a friend) that got the lapband procedure done. In her case, however it was not weight related - it was for some other (futuristic) reason and benefit this provided. But her band fell off and she got really sick....no details on her sickness or emotional involvement on my part...I just moved on to the next dream after that.

Last week I talked to an apartment manager who is trying to work with a resident who is months behind on her rent - she had the procedure done and everything went wrong. In a matter of months, she has lost everything; job, health, hair and her ability to be mobile, due to complications from the procedure. Now she faces being homeless.

While the real-life situation is very, very sad, I have no emotional involvement with this woman; it was story. And my dream was exactly that. A story.

It is kinda cool and weird that my reality is so perfectly translating itself into my dreams.