Steven Easton

"The Bachelorette"

Monday, May 20

I think I am officially stressed, and it has nothing to do with school anymore. I cannot believe that school is going to be done in ten days. 

Today was a good day, but I actually had to do work today with my students. Had I known how much my lack of motivation would sprout up over the last couple of days, I don't know if I would've put certain things off until the last minute. I don't know why I thought I'd have motivation to grade things at the last minute, but at the same time, most of my friends here are in the same boat I am.

Tonight, Ava was watching "The Bachelorette", and this was one of those topics that I brought up a lot in the blog previously, but tonight, all sorts of things were wrong with that show, and I regret my parenting choice of letting her watch that stupid show. That is not the right way to find love, so I decided to get creative, which she can never know about. 

Because we only have one TV in the house, I decided to turn off the circuit that controls the TV. Immediately, she screamed, "STEVEN..."

I had to hold back a laugh as I came up the steps. (Tonight's show was not appropriate, okay? It was for her own good, I swear.) 

"Yeah?"

"Why's the TV broken?"

"What did you do to it?" Making sure my tone was playful, so she wouldn't actually think I blamed her, I folded my arms. "Ava, this is why we cannot have nice things." 

"What happened?" she shrieked, not playing. "Can you fix it?"

Walking up to the TV, I smacked the back of it lightly. "Nope," I told her. 

"Why would it shut off just randomly?"

"It couldn't take anymore of 'The Bachelorette', I guess." Shrugging, I started back downstairs.

"But...how would our TV just stop working?" 

Knowing that lying would piss her off later, I said, "Ya know, it's a nice night out; we could go for a walk."

"Are you not concerned about your TV?" 

Biting my lip, I sighed. "No, not really. I don't watch it that much."

Glaring, she folded her arms. "But what about movies?"

"That's what my laptop is for. Duh."

"I don't want to have to watch them on that!"

"Ava." I put a hand up. "Girl, chill. The dudes on there are too old for you anyway."

"But I need training."

"Ava." I decided to go closer to her. "We've been over this: 'The Bachelorette' is not an okay to find your soulmate, okay?"

"Rachel and Bryan are getting married though."

"Yeah, they all end in a proposal, and most of them break up, so that's not a very good statistic. Only desperate people go on 'The Bachelor'."

"Luke isn't desperate."

My heart sank when she said that. "You're 11. Stop. That's creepy." I paused. "Well, since you can't watch TV, let's go on a walk."

"No."

"Fine, then go shower."

"Can I have my phone back?" 

"Um, no."

"But the TV is broken."

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

Tilting her head, she squinted. "Say what?"

"Just because the TV isn't in operation doesn't mean that you get your phone back."

"What happened to it? How do you know that it's not in operation."

Picking up the remote, I turned on the power button. "That's how."

Groaning, she pressed her lips together. "Whyyyy?"

Debating whether to tell her or not, I decided to stand up and go back downstairs. Maybe unplugging is a good idea for the next couple days anyway.