Resolution Number One

I have an addiction.

It's a vice that kills my brain cells, takes up my precious time, and ultimately leaves me unfulfilled. Yes, I am talking about only one thing: celebrity gossip.

People.com, UsMagazine.com, Perez, Pink is the New Blog, Superficial, Jossip, Yahoo OMG, these are the sites I frequent instead of writing (or staring at a blank word doc). Jennifer, Paris, Angelina, Katie, Victoria, Penelope, Nicole, these are the women whose lives I watch unfold, instead of working on my own career. Who wore what to the event last night? Who is dating who? Is so-and-so pregnant?

Does it matter?

When I worked for People, it mattered greatly. I was paid to scan these sites, to click on the links hourly looking for updates, glimmers of gossip, inside into, leads to check out.

But now that I'm not compelled to know the ages of Heidi Klum's three children (Leni, Henry, and Johan--I'm telling you, this affliction is out of control), I need to pull away. I'm quitting cold turkey.

Gossip magazines and websites fulfill certain needs we have--to feel in the loop, to fantasize about ideal lifestyles, to escape. They affirm that we can be just a beautiful as these Hollywood femmes, with the right tools and tricks, while also showing us that even the beautiful fall hard (Heather Locklear is good recent example of this). Yet, if I turn to my writing, I can escape, I can fantasize, I can create a world of my own. I can feel good about myself without buying $100 an ounce face cream. Or take pride in my own life instead of feeling better about my short-comings after reading about Tara Reid's decision to go to rehab. (Though, hers was a very necessary step in reclaiming the broken pieces of her D-list career.)

It's not going to be easy, but I've already taken the first step: deleted the gossip site links from my Firefox tool bar. I know I'll miss my pals Victoria and Katie the most. But I can do without them. I've gone about three days. Staying strong.