In defense of canceling plans to watch “Game of Thrones” instead

Over the weekend, maybe you found yourself in the same tight spot that I was in. With an extra day for the long-weekend, someone tried to make plans with my Sunday night. While Sunday night plans are fine and welcomed, Sunday nights are reserved for one thing, and one thing alone. Game of Thrones.

I tried as best I could to dance around the subject that I couldn’t hang out because of television, but after a while I gave up and came right out and said it, “I’m actually unavailable between the hours of 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.” (and also I watch Game of Thrones on the East Coast feed, thanks HBO Go!) I texted back, like an adult. The person on the other end was like “da fuq?” And I was like “Game of Thrones is on and I have MY PRIORITIES STRAIGHT.”

They didn’t text me back after that, and for a hot second I felt bad/weird about it, because I had just blown off a friend to watch a television show about dragons. However, are plenty of times this friend has told me that he couldn’t hang out, because some ~sports~ game was on. Well, I’ve got a game too, and when you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die.

But you know what? I’m not sorry I chose television over seeing another human being in the flesh. It’s about time we, as a human race, stop apologizing for choosing television over friends. I’ve done it many times before, I did it two days ago, and I’ll do it again and again until the end of time, or television ceases to exist. LOL, like that would ever happen.

The thing is sometimes I just genuinely like watching TV more than I like hanging out with people. People are fine, sure. I like my friends, they’re cool. However, I also really enjoy not wearing actual pants, lying on my couch, staring at my television, and watching some DRAGONS, and Dany, set stuff on FIRE. I think I should be allowed to have days where I want to hang out with friends, and then other days where I want to do nothing but hang out with my television. If these two things, friends and television, try to overlap at the same time, it’s up to me to prioritize them. If I needed to choose between like, friends and Once Upon A Time, I’d choose friends.

But nothing comes before Game of Thrones. Nothing.

Think about the scenario that would have happened if I had gone out with this friend Sunday night: We would have ended up somewhere, where I’d miss the biggest television show on the planet, and that would render me unable to look at Twitter or Facebook without something being spoiled for me. By being a part of something — social interaction— I would have felt like I was missing out on something ELSE, namely watching Game of Thrones with the rest of the planet, and finding out what happens. For me, the latter is a bigger deal. I feel like I’m a part of something big watching Game of Thrones alone, in my apartment, at 6pm.

I KNOW I would have gone out with this friend, and spent the entire time cranky/upset over missing this show. Is that odd behavior for an adult? Maybe. However it’s what I know to be true, and that’s what I like.

So yeah, as an adult, trying to make plans with another adult, I bailed because of television. It’s fine, and no one actually died over it. I’ve already gone ahead and made new plans with this friend, and we’re going to go out on a night where there is no television on. But if this same rock and a hard place situation should come up again, television is going to win.

You know what? Television should sit on the Iron Throne. That makes sense.