I'm starting a temp job tomorrow which I'm both happy and not happy about. How's that for being specific? I mean, let's face it, I need to get out of the house and I very, very badly need to make some money. But then there's also the fact that this is an administrative temp job, not a job in journalism, my field, or in any way related to journalism or even related to anything I like to do, and there's always the fear that I'll do this for a few weeks, get complacent, and stay at the temp job forever. This has never happened to me before, but there's a first time for everything.

Anyway, since today was my last day lounging around at home for awhile, I decided to turn on the TV, park myself at the computer with the phone, my datebook and a long to-do list and get some stuff done. J and I may soon be buying our first house (!) and it turns out purchasing property requires lots of binders and folders and organization. Thankfully, the process has been much more manageable than I thought it would be, but it's all still very time consuming.

Much to my delight there were back to back episodes of "The Golden Girls" on Lifetime this morning so that's what I watched as I got to work. It was a pretty great setup, all in all. Cozy at home, being productive but also watching television, and no one there to make fun of me for watching "The Golden Girls."

I was busy making phone calls and writing emails and eventually a Lifetime movie came on that I didn't bother to turn off. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Lifetime movies. In fact, when you're in the mood, there's nothing better. It's just that I was kind of busy and wasn't sure I had the emotional energy to invest in characters that were going to inevitably die or get molested or something.

But before I knew what was going on I was mildly involved in the plot and decided that there was no point depriving myself of what looked - at the outset - like a somewhat interesting story. I didn't catch all the details, because I was in the middle of various things, but basically this woman, played by the Peggy Bundy from "Married With Children" and her husband, played by the dad from "My So Called Life" had a baby very prematurely.

The baby turned out alright, but then the Bundy woman started having back pain that seemed innocuous enough but you just knew something was wrong. Big time. At this point I went downstairs to make myself lunch, and when I got back up here she was doing a lot worse and asked one of her girlfriends if she was going to die. "I think I'm going to die," she said, answering her own question. Cue the dramatic Lifetime movie music.

For some reason the nurse who'd taken care of their premature daughter came to take care of her in her dying days. This nurse, played by the girl from "Mystic Pizza" and who also played Pudge in "Shag," her best role ever, became very close to the Peggy Bundy character and encouraged her to write letters to her daughter since she wasn't going to get to see her grow up. Meanwhile the "My So Called Life" dad is semi-freaking out because he can't accept that his wife is dying.

You know what happened next. Peggy Bundy died in this incredibly sappy death scene that included her holding her now-flourishing baby daughter one last time. Everyone was puking all over themselves, it was so sappy. Ok, they weren't, but I bet they were between takes.

I totally thought the movie was over. You know, that the dad would show his young daughter some pictures of his mom and they'd talk about what a special woman she was just before the credits started rolling. But instead the movie took another turn and all of a sudden the dad and Pudge are out at a bar having an awkward drink. I guess before she died, the mom had gotten it into her head that her husband and this neo-natal nurse/caregiver would be a good pair once she kicked the bucket and had suggested the idea to each of them individually.

You would have thought this plot couldn't handle any more conflict, but turned out it could because in the next scene Pudge was talking to her adolescent daughter about how she wasn't, couldn't be, in love with the dad because he was still in love with his dead wife and their relationship would never work.

At this point I got on the phone to talk to my dad because, come on, what was going on with this movie? As I was chatting with him, the TV on mute, I noticed the new couple making out at some New Year's party or something. I guess Pudge got over her misgivings. Then, of course, they got married and I think at the end there was some touching reminiscence regarding the Peggy Bundy character but I wouldn't really know because I was on the phone again.

If this is your favorite movie, or you were planning on watching "The Incredible Saga of the Premature Baby/Death From a Painful Disease/Love After Losing a Spouse" tonight and I just ruined it for you, I am sorry, but I wanted to make a point, that point being that it may be just a temp job, but it is obviously rather urgent that I get out and about during the day because I can't imagine sitting around and getting angry about the various complexities in Lifetime movies is a healthy way to spend my time.