Indulgence by Stephanie Julian

As a wife, a mother and a self-employed writer, the concept of indulgence is an interesting one.I've been a writer for years, lucky enough to be paid to do it, but there never seems to be enough time to really indulge myself in something completely frivolous.

Even though I work at home, I treat my writing as I would a regular office job, with the exception that I don't leave the house and I can do it in my robe. I take two breaks, one for breakfast and one for lunch, unless it's my run day then I break for a run mid-morning. I don't consider my run an indulgence. I do some of my best plotting on a sunny day in my sneakers plodding along the creek trail. Besides, sitting all day, I really need that exercise. (And I need to offset my Junior Mint addiction.)

By 4:30, I leave my home office and take my work downstairs to my laptop, where I watch the Food Network for an hour and indulge my fantasy that maybe someday I'll actually be a good cook.

One of my favorite indulgences is watching TV. I tape at least two shows a night, if not more, and I catch up with a few on On Demand. Some shows, you could say, are more of a necessity. I mean, "Castle" is about a writer, so obviously that relates to my life. "Justified" stars the gorgeous Timothy Olyphant and some of the best damn writing on TV, so that counts as research. Yes, it does.

"Stargate Universe" is sci-fi, which, you could argue, is close to paranormal. And of course, "Being Human" has a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost as its main characters. Nuff said. "Parenthood" provides an absolute wealth of insight into character development while "Glee" is pure pop culture lightning.

"Modern Family" and "Community" show how tight comedy needs to be."Off the Map" is a romantic soap opera so that's a no-brainer. Plus, Martin Henderson is nummy. And "The Vampire Diaries" has a barely concealed menage at its core.

Thank God I have a DVR because Friday would be a disaster otherwise. "Fringe" and "Supernatural" go head to head. "Fringe" is, hands down, the best show on TV right now. It's a mini master class in story, character and how to create a mythology. And the love story between Peter and Olivia (not to mention the budding love story between Lincoln and faux Olivia) is so worth your time.

Then there's "Supernatural" and Jensen Ackles. What else does a show need? Plus, it's damn good at mixing humor, horror and over-arcing story lines.

Maybe the only TV show I watch purely for fun is "Dancing With The Stars." Although... No, I just like the dancing. I have, however, written a book with a heroine who competes as an amateur ballroom dancer so maybe I can justify losing two hours of my Monday night.