I’ll be the first to admit.

I started this first post-deployment week off with the best of intentions.  I had plans, you know.  I was going to get things done.

But then I learned that Dawson’s Creek is now available for streaming on Netflix and spent the weekend — yes, the entire weekend — drinking wine, eating cheesy pasta from a box, and realizing that my high school crush on Pacey Witter has, in fact, not diminished over the last fourteen years.

Because these are the things I had available to me without leaving the house.

Long before Bella went batshit for Edward and Jacob, teens of the 90’s were fatefully divided between Team Pacey and Team Dawson.  And even though their names were ridiculous and they had the vocabulary of tenured english professors, the adorability factor was undeniable.

And today, on my day off, my plan was to prime and paint my closet to prep for the long-awaited pipe organizer post.

But now?

Now I’m not sure.

I’m fighting demons.  And they don’t stop with Pacey fantasies.

My allergies have turned my nose into a faucet, my ears into pressure valves, and my chest into a lead weight.  Also, I smell.

And also, my neighbor invited me to a wine drinking ladies’ social event last night (or so I’d been told), but it was really a jewelry selling party where I only felt slightly out-of-place among the perfectly kept housewives to the point where I may have overindulged in the boxed wine that they swore was delicious because the box, after all, was black and fancy, but let me just go ahead and tell you that it was not.  That said, I still managed to have a nice time because, lo and behold, they were great women.  Fun, witty, and very content with their lives.  There was even a former Miss USA title winner in the bunch who kept everyone laughing with her running man talent.

Needless to say, I’m not feeling 100% this morning.

And I’m tempted — oh-so-tempted — to turn on the Dawson and sink into mindlessness.

But I won’t.

Yet.

I’m thinking the best way to battle my lethargy is to work on a reward-based system.  If I get something done, I earn an episode of Dawson’s Creek.

Primer is up?  Great!  Watch as Jen falls back into her bad girl ways.

What?  You painted that first coat?  Awesome!  Find out who Joey loses her virginity to.

You hung the organizing system, de-cluttered the garage, stained your shelves, pressure washed the house, cancelled Justin’s phone service, wrote your post for Apartment Therapy, and finished decorating your bedroom?  Congratulations, friend — you just earned yourself a full day Creek-a-thon of brainless nostalgia.

Obviously, I’m still working out the details.  But I’m thinking I’ll train myself the way I train the dogs.  With positive reinforcement.

And since my dogs are so well-behaved, I know this will work.

cough.