Why didn't I crack 20K on my WIP last night? I blame 24.

I couldn't help myself; I just had to watch. How Keifer has already survived the past 20 hours without stopping for a substantial meal or pee break, I'll never know. Heck, I wouldn't make it through the first three minutes.

My husband and I got into the 24 addiction late in the game, Season 3. So we decided to go to the local video store to pick up Season 1 so that we could catch up on everything. Sure, we knew we'd be in for an all-nighter, but we were ready for it.

Except they only let you rent the show 4 episodes at a time.

"Are you serious?" I asked the tattooed guy behind the counter.

"It's our policy, we don't want our customers o-ding."

"Come on, it's just a show."

"You haven't seen what I've seen lady. When we first got the DVDs in, people went nuts. Watched all 24 episodes in a row, maybe stopping once or twice to take a leak."

"Yeah, so?"

"These people have children, jobs, responsibilities...but they couldn't stop watching. They'd come back here, dazed, dehydrated and looking like they went to the wrong damn party...and beg us to rent them Season 2."

"Yeah, but we're not like that."

"Of course. But that's our store policy. One set of 4 episodes at a time. Hey, if you time it right, you can get about 12 episodes in before we close tonight."

"Or we could just buy it."

He pulled the unwrapped set of Season 1 out from under the counter.

"That's what I was hoping you'd say."

Aden and I looked at each other, scared. Did we have enough willpower to not succumb to the lure of 24? Would we be able to stop it?

Nah, didn't think so.

So we left the store empty handed. One day we'll be ready. Just not today; and tomorrow doesn't look good either.