The Office is (almost) closed

Several years ago, Amy and Michael started watching The Office, the NBC “documentary” about people who work in a (wait for it) office. I don’t know how they got interested or who introduced them, but once they met Michael, Dwight, Jim, Pam and the rest of the crew, they were hooked.

Two years ago, they asked me watch the show with them. Seeing an opportunity to spend some quality time with my teenagers, I said yes. So we started watching from Season 1, Episode 1. It did not go well. I could not stand the show. Michael Scott made me physically ill. How could anyone – ANYONE – be so dumb?! And it wasn’t just Michael; the rest of the crew was dumb, too; even Pam! Why couldn’t she see Roy was clearly wrong for her? Jim seemed to be the only one who didn’t make me want to throw up.

There were nights I didn’t think I could make it through another episode. But I knew I was running out of time with my kids; they’d be grown and gone before long. So if this was a way to spend more time with them, I would make it work. Even if I had to occasionally close my eyes. And plug my ears.

Well, I powered through and Amy and I finished up Season 8 last weekend. I thought I was close to being able to watch the finale with the kids next week. Oh no. Turns out, in order for me to be totally caught up I had to watch 21 more episodes. Twenty-one.

Oh my word. That’s almost eight hours! I don't watch eight hours of television in a month, much less a week.

But because I love my children, I have ignored their needs since Monday. In that time, Amy and I have watched 17 episodes of The Office. We have to finish them all this week before our free trial of Hulu Plus ends, which is the only way I can see the current-season episodes. Miraculously, I cooked dinner Monday night. Thankfully, Sean had a dinner meeting last night, because there was no way food was happening with all this Office-watching going on. The girls had cereal.

And let me just tell you, if Pam and Jim mess things up because of the microphone guy and Jim’s new job in Philly, I am going to be unhappy. Very unhappy.

Four more episodes and I’ll be caught-up and can watch the finale with Michael and Amy.

The things you do for your kids…

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Please do not read this as a glowing endorsement of the show. It is certainly not entirely family-friendly. But it has been a great vehicle for conversation-starters, which has been good.