Jamie's Corner: The Class I Wish School Offered

What is Jamie’s Corner? 

Jamie's Corner is a humorous look at life, in particular my life. 

In the movies, I am not the elegant lady that walks down the stairs and charms her guests with grace and beauty. I am the one that trips on her gown, spills wine on her new dress and tries to carry on a conversation with spinach stuck in between her teeth. Years ago, it used to affect my sense of self and make my depression worse. But I no longer see it that way. A writer once told me anything that does not go smoothly in life makes for a good story. I agree. And I have lots of stories.

View the full archive of Jamie's Corner here.

My story this week is Jamie and The Class I Wish School Offered.

How many times have you heard someone lament that the classes we truly need are not offered at school?

I can discuss Shakespeare, write the molecular structure of several chemical compounds, and graph algebraic equations. But don’t ask me to stream a movie on my television. 

Three years ago, we got rid of cable and started streaming programs instead. We started with Netflix, (the gate way streaming service). First, it was just Netflix. Then, as other companies got on board with streaming, we added Disney, Paramount, Pluto, Amazon and Youtube TV (just to mention a few). I did not realize how complex our television watching had become until my father-in-law came to stay with us for a bit. Back at home, he still had an old-fashioned tv with just a few basic free channels obtained through using an antenna (does anyone remember bunny ears?).  I decided I was going to search for a movie that I knew he liked. I started with Netflix, but could not find the movie in question. I continued among the different streaming services. I next tried Hulu and came across it, only to be given a message that while I did have Hulu, I could only watch the movie if I had the Hulu + live tv viewing option. I then tried another platform. It took me forever to get out of their live tv viewing option and actually search for the movie. No luck. I tried the next platform with the same results. I came across the movie on Amazon Prime only to be told that I had to rent or buy the movie. I felt so let down. 

So, I decided to look for two other movies, but I was met with the same outcome. Twenty-five minutes later and we were back to square one: staring at the tv, not watching anything. I was frustrated. How had watching the tv become so complicated? So, I did what I always do in this circumstance, I chose a movie that I knew would be available, despite having watched it multiple times before. We started streaming to have a larger selection with more on demand programs and movies. Yet I often find myself watching the same movies over and over again, like a toddler refusing to change the channel. My father-in-law tried a few times to figure out how to use our magic box, only to give up and let us do it for him. 

Maybe next semester the local community college can offer Streaming: Making Friends with Your Television. I’ll sign up for it (once I figure out how to sign up for their classes on-line). Lol.