about just getting it over with and replacing the TV

After over 3 years' procrastinating, I scheduled a day to replace my old TV.

The day came, so I left work early and Googled something like, “things to know before buying a new TV.” I spent several minutes skimming a few pages that each listed 9 or 10 factors, like the different screen-lighting technologies, how many and what kinds of ports and jacks you might want, the relevance of frames displayed per second, and so on. None of this was especially helpful. I probably couldn’t tell the difference between an LED, QLED, OLED, or UHD.

But one hint made sense: a good 55” TV will cost around $500.

Okay, so on to Best Buy, where I found a wall of 55” TVs. Only three of them cost about $500. Obviously, no Best Buy employee would go near a customer, so I took the time to Google each model’s specs and a couple reviews until I found a reason to justify picking one TV over the others.

Including research, driving, checking out, and everything, I spent maybe an hour buying an appliance worth over $500—an appliance that I spend significant quantities of time using and want to enjoy almost every day. It was the only way to pull the trigger.

Before I even dragged the box all the way into the house, I realized the TV was too big for my TV stand. I was so focused on the thing itself that I forgot about where it would go, placing time and value before physical space.

A person can get bogged down overthinking these things.

about a certain type of reality TV personality

On the show "The Bachelorette," there's always at least one guy, a realtor or medical sales rep or something, who has kids and tells everyone about how he has "sacrificed to be here," implying that he left his kids behind to come on the show. The guy has little to no relationship with his ex-wife and kids except that he probably called the kids the night before he flew to California to start taping. He even got a little emotional as he hung up the phone, his voice thickening as he said goodbye. He tried to savor that feeling and carry it with him on the plane. He felt the feeling grounded him. And it might, if he can summon it again at the right moment, allow him to seem more sincere with the bachelorette woman, Charity or Chastity or whatever her name is. He had a good feeling that this thing might turn into something bigger, turn him into something bigger.