This Is What Addiction Looks Like: Game of Thrones

Note: there's nothing about writing here today. Not a peep. Unless you count the fact that I WROTE this post? No? Right. Sorry. I got...distracted. I'll try to drag myself out of the television for next week. Really, I promise. 

I held out for as long as I could - either four years or nineteen years, depending on if you count from first book publication or TV premiere - but it's finally happened:

I'm drinking the House Stark Kool-Aid. Smoking the Westeros crack pipe. Hooked up to an IV of Blood Magic.

In other words, I've joined the legions of people who are completely, thoroughly, utterly addicted to Game of Thrones.

I'm talking the HBO series, here, not the books: as a proud bibliophile, it's embarrassing to admit, but I've been scared away from the books by the sheer size of the volumes. They're freaking long, OK? And I've always worried that if I started reading them, I wouldn't be able to stop until I'd read all of them, which would takes months and would mean I'd never read anything else, and, even worse, that I'd hit the point of utter desperation so many fans have felt, when they reached the end of the fifth book only to find that George R. R. Martin is the slowest writer the world has ever seen, and realize that they'll have to wait an unbearable, undetermined amount of time before they can get their next fix.

Now that I've started watching the TV show, I know - I was right to be afraid. Because now I reach the end of one episode and find myself thinking, "Well, the next one is only another hour, I can squeeze that in, right? It's just one hour less of sleep." Or, you know, five.

So now I'm sleep deprived and running behind on a ton of tasks (not good, considering what's coming up in my life,) and even when I'm not watching TV it's still ruling my life. I'll be cooking dinner or working with client, and think, "Hmm, what's Tyrion going to do about [insert life-threatening dilemma here]?" Or, "Oh god, I can't get over it! I keep seeing the scene where [insert important, beloved, heroic character here] died, over and over again."

I was going to write more, but, you know, EPISODES TO WATCH.

See?? I'm sacrificing social and recreational activities, and my relationships and work are suffering. I really am addicted.

OOOO the theme song is playing! Gotta go!

Do you watch Game of Thrones? Read the books? What are you addicted to these days?