Jen and I have just about everything in common – almost. For as long as I can remember I’ve been a night owl, that’s one of the many things I inherited from my mom. She would stay up reading a book until 1 or 2 in the morning and drink tea all day (and night) long. OK, I don’t take my nocturnal nature that far but I do like to stay up much later than Jen. It’s not a ‘stroke’ thing or anything, it’s always been that way.

Another big difference between us is that she enjoys a completely quiet and peaceful house, she’s working all the time – and me, not so much. I also like a silent and serene environment, but only for about 5 minutes. After that, turn on the radio or TV because something is probably happening somewhere that my life depends on. Jen thinks I have ADD because I need constant stimulation, sometimes from more than one source. As I write this, I’m listening to music with my earbuds and half watching the Mizzou game on TV (muted). Jen calls it WAY to much input but I call it multitasking!

I have a daily schedule for bombarding my mind and ears with distractions. Shortly after my eyes pop open in the morning Jen turns on the TV for me and I watch some of CBS This Morning. It’s not that I’m all that wild about Charlie Rose (the oldish guy) and Oprah’s friend Gayle what’s-her-face, it’s because we used to watch The Today Show for years and we couldn’t stand the abuse any longer. After about 45 minutes or so and they start repeating the news cycle, the TV gets muted and on comes the radio which is permanently tuned to KTRS (Hi. I’m Jim, I’m addicted to talk radio.) McGraw Milhaven is on until 10, I think his show is interesting enough and he himself is pretty funny. Sure, he likes shows like Glee and The Bachelorette a little too much for me and is a self proclaimed metrosexual but Hey!, we all can’t be exactly alike. After him comes Martin Kilcoyne, I also think he’s hilarious and Jen accuses me of having a bromance with him.

After the breakfast/lunch meal, the earbuds go in and I’m basically checked out for the afternoon. I usually watch a show or DVD on my computer and then listen to a book. We eat dinner (and listen to Frank O. Pinion) around five and then it’s off to my recliner for more TV for a couple hours. Now that baseball is over and we’re about to exact our revenge on the Red Sox, it’s time to start chipping away at the boatload of awesome shows I have stored up on the DVR. Why do I record so much crap? Speaking of DVRs, when was the last time you watched two commercials in a row? How did we all survive the pre-DVR days? God knows we didn’t have the patience or know-how to figure out how to use the VCR timer! At 9 or 10 it’s time to hit the sack where I watch the news and the beginning of the Letterman show (I’m not a Leno fan). I think Jimmy Fallon’s hilarious but his show is on WAY too late for us. Look at this clip from Letterman, Jen and I saw this movie and this bit just cracked us up!:

Then it’s lights out and TV off (most of the time) at which point my sound machine comes on and I doze off to the sounds of waves crashing on the beach or raindrops falling on the tin roof over my head (that we don’t have).

So, as you can see, there aren’t many moments in the day when I’m NOT being assaulted by some kind of electronic noise!