My name is Emily, and I'm an addict.

Today I had a second interview, and after 90 minutes of being an active, hygienic, valuable member of society, I'm back on my couch, watching TV, blogging and surfing the Internet. I'm a bit concerned that I'm becoming the guy in this video my friend Eric sent me.



Or, more concerning for my friends and family because they know how I live, I think this is my problem.

Yes, that's right. Like these stay-at-home moms who ignore their kids to stalk their friends from high school on Facebook, I am addicted to the Internet. And, like the guy in the video, I constantly sit at my apartment on the couch in front of my MacBook (with the TV in the ideal position directly behind, so I can pay attention to both). I applied for unemployment online. I think of things to sell on eBay. I look at eBay. I am becoming a hermit. I scour the Internet for new jobs. And I spend an unhealthy amount of time checking to see if people have voted on my poll (Rock the vote, people!). Honestly, no more than 20 minutes goes by that I don't have my computer in my lap.

Some of you might say, "Well, Emily, I'm sure this will change once [you get a job, Patrick comes back from Bermuda, you start filling the Red Box, insert any other excuse here]." But in reality, the answer is "probably not."

You see, I've been like this since we first got the Internet back in '96 or '97, when I would use more than half of the "monthly hours" our family was allotted by the Internet provider by chatting with strangers in chat rooms, and then screaming when our dial-up connection dropped in the middle of my deep discussion on the merits of Justin Timberlake over J.C. Chasez.

Fast-forward to today: I can't go more than an hour without checking my e-mail, and if I had to be without a computer for a few days, I would need Klonopin to calm my anxiety.

Yet I do not see my addiction as a cause for concern. After all, if I wasn't such an addict, you wouldn't have this enthralling blog to read every day, right? You would sit around, thinking "I wonder how I could spend the next three minutes" and feel completely lost, without anything to do.

And in the end, maybe that makes you just a little bit addicted too.