Friends and our need for them

I have a great group of friends. We do so much together and have been there for each other for every single milestone in life to this point. We're all in our 30's, we're all married, we all have kids. There's been ups and downs and we've been there to support each other. And have had a blast. We're always doing fun activities. I know which ladies will be on my arm when I'm 80, still doing the fun things we've always done.

Recently there was some buzz about a Friends the TV show reunion and even a whole reunion season. I was ecstatic. It's one of my all time favorite shows. I just bought the entire series on DVD. I would LOVE to see how the characters I loved are doing ten years later. But all my hopes were dashed with an article stating this was not happening. Which was fine, but I completely disagreed with the reasoning.

The article I read- read it here- states the reunion is not happening because "Friends was about that time in your life when your friends were your family and once you have a family, there's no need."

O....kay.....so what about this awesome bond I have with my girls? And even some of the guys?

I sure as hell need my friends. And I plan on always needing them. I adore my kids, but sometimes I need to be with other adults. I need to let loose with my girls and have fun. We have strong bonds. No one else on earth can identify with me about life like they can. We laugh together, cry together, do silly crazy shit together! My kids and husband aren't going to see NKOTB with me! My girlfriends are! I'm living my life to the fullest and enjoying it and my friends are a huge part of that. My family is the other part. Both are very significant to me.

So fine...there won't be a Friends reunion, but don't use the lame excuse that no one needs friends once they have a spouse and family.

And to get technical, Ross and Monica were brother and sister, and married/ended up with two of the other friends, making them all family. So, 4 of the friends still see each other an awful lot. Well, in my imagination they do. :) So there!

Do you love TV?

I have no shame or guilt in admitting I love watching TV. I spend my day on the computer, writing, blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, Pinteresting, etc... Then I make dinner for my family, spend time with them, clean the house a bit, etc... But once the kids have been read their bedtime stories and tucked into bed, it is my time to relax and unwind.

I love curling up on the couch with a favorite show that I can get lost in. I love to laugh most, so sitcoms usually take the number one spot for me. A good show with great writing and a stellar cast is perfection. My favs- How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family. (Well, these are my favs of the shows that are on right now! I just bought the box set of Friends on DVD! Can't wait to start it!)

But I also love a good soap opera-esque drama. I am pretty infatuated with Dallas right now! I was a HUGE All My Children fan, very sad to see it go. But it is starting up again online. Will be interesting to see how that goes. But Dallas definitely filled a large void for me. Drama, sex, money, power, sex..... ;) There are some pretty nice pieces of man candy on Dallas! YUM!

And I do watch a limited amount of reality TV. But I am very picky. I'm just nto into the ones that film random people with no real plot. It may have been cool in the 90'swhen The Real World first came out. It was new and interesting. But I am so over seeing people fight over petty things and gain fame for being a train wreck. I like competition type reality shows. I love Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Apprentice. And I gotta mention the cooking shows! We adore Chopped and The Next Iron Chef.

One of the sad things  I see happening a lot lately though is good shows with good writing being cancelled in favor of blah reality TV. I don't get it :(

Do you watch TV? What are your favorites??? What are your thoughts on reality TV?

The New Dallas!!!! And a lesson on backstory :)

Oh yeah...I watched the new Dallas. I never watched the original. My parents were huge fans, but us kids had to be in bed before Dallas came on. But I do remember that opening song...and boy did it send chills up and down my spine when I watched the new Dallas the other night!!

With some of my favorite shows ending and being canceled lately, and the lack of decent TV (meaning, good fictional shows with talented writers...not reality crap), I've really been craving good shows. I love a great soap opera....I want sex, drama, a few laughs. I wanna be sucked in and emerged in a fabulous fictional world. And Dallas is exactly that. Plus some really hot guys!! I've been a Jesse Metcalfe fan since his first appearance on Desperate Housewives. And though I thought Josh Henderson was cute when he was on DH too....he is so super sexy now. I've never been into bad boys, but Oh My! I am loving me some John Ross Ewing!! I think he's my favorite so far!!

Anyway, the second point of this post (after all my gushing over the story and hot guys) is the backstory. Now, like me, there have to be thousands of viewers who did not watch the original series. I don't know every character's story. I only know tiny bits and pieces. I mean, really, who DIDN'T know JR was shot in the 80's?? So the writers have a huge challenge in front of them. They need to bring new viewers up to speed, and also remind old viewers what happened 20 years ago. But the story needs to start in the here and now and draw people in to what's happening now...no time for too much filling in.

And so far, I think the writers have done a great job. I know enough of what happened years ago to not be completely lost. I still have a couple questions that I hope will be answered soon, but the show has already pulled me in enough that I am intrigued with the present and not so much the past.

So, anyone become a new fan of Dallas like me?? Any old fans watching the new show? What are your thoughts??

I tried to get the Dallas DVDs but my library did not have them :(

"I learned it from Sponge Bob."

Okay, so I do let my kids watch TV. I truly think there are a lot of great educational shows out there that are also fun to watch. I know my kids pick up lessons from them, whether it be letters, shapes, colors, etc... But I never expected my daughter to learn something from Sponge Bob.

Now, I am not a fan of Bobby. I remember years ago when it first came out, I was childless at the time. A coworker was telling me about it. I was like, "Seriously, a show about a talking kitchen sponge?" I'd seen it a few times after that and the voice just grated at my ear drums. So when my daughter was born, I swore, no Sponge Bob.

But it's been almost 8 years since her birth, and I don't know, maybe I'm worn down. Maybe I've decided it's more important to hold my ground on more important topics. But she is now allowed to watch it.

Yesterday we were driving in the car and my daughter asked if we can regrow fingers if they get cut off. I think this came from a few days before when I told her she had to wear gloves or she would get frostbite and if it was bad, they'd have to amputate her fingers (I am not above worst case scenario stories if it helps keep her gloves on!) So we said no, that only some animals can regrow limbs, like a lizard's tail. She then tells us that lizards can only regrow their tails if just the tip is cut off, not the whole thing. I then told her that I thought starfish could regrow their arms if one is cut off. She says "Oh, yeah, they can. Patrick (from Sponge Bob) got his arm cut off and he grew a new one."

Okay...so maybe she is learning something from Sponge Bob.

She continued, "And his arm grew a new body!"

Well, it can't be all educational, I guess.

I look back at the silly stuff I watched as a kid- You Can't Do That on Television, Ren and Stimpy, Smurfs...etc. There was nothing educational about those shows and I grew up to be a normal, well-educated member of society.

I am so desperate for new shows!!!!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ready for the new season of shows to start tonight!!!!!! I love to laugh and I love to be entertained. The writing on my favorite shows is spectacular and I just cannot wait to see brand spanking new episodes!!!

Anyone else ready for new shows?? What are your favs??

And what about new series??? I am looking forward to Outsourced!

TV is not evil

I find it really funny that so many people bash TV like it's the worst thing since cigarettes or heroine. Yeah, not everything on the tube is great...I wholeheartedly believe there is WAAAAYYYYY too much reality TV and people being paid to be stupid.

But what about honest to goodness shows with amazing story-telling??? What is so wrong with those??

During my travels last weekend, 5 hours in the car each way with my writing friend Sarah, we had plenty of time to talk. And one topic was TV and how we just cannot understand why so many people are so "Oh, I don't watch ANY TV."

Why not? There are writers behind those TV shows. Damn good writers. Whether it be a comedy or drama, someone brilliant is there thinking up the fantastic story lines that keep us on the edges of our seats and the one-liners that crack us up.

I think there is such thing as too much TV, especially when kids are plopped for hours and hours. But a show or two a day?? I am amazed at the thing my kids pick up from great educational programs on PBS and shows like Go Diego Go and Yo Gabba Gabba. As with anything, it's the quality that matters.

I love books...that's a given...and when I read, I envision the story in my head like a movie. What's so different about actually watching a story on the TV instead??

What's your pleasure?????

Today I'm talking about pleasures....the guilty kind! This time of year we relax into all kinds of guilty pleasures from sugary treats, to corny holiday movies and that hippopotamus song.

You're probably singing it in your head now, aren't you???

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do..."

But anyway....I'm here to question why these silly things are considered "guilty" pleasures. The definition for guilty pleasure is: something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. Often, the "guilt" involved is simply fear of others discovering one's lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes, rather than actual moral guilt.

If someone feels pleasure from something...if someone enjoys something...why should they feel guilty about it?? If the pleasurable activity is not hurting anyone...then why not be proud?? There is so much in this world that is depressing and very un-pleasurable. I'm not going to waste any time feeling guilty for liking what I like.

So come on...share you pleasures!! Any of them...I won't make fun of you!!!!

Me...here are a few of the simple things in life that bring me true joy and I don't care who knows!!

New Kids on the Block (and those of you who know me, know I have NO problems what so ever shouting to the world that I am a huge Blockhead!!)
All 80's music
Boy Bands: Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, LFO, 98 Degrees, OTown
Patsy Cline
Dirty Dancing
America Pie Movies (only the three with Jason Biggs...not all the ones that followed)
Scrapbooking
Chick Lit and Romance Books (and I like the sexy scenes too!)
Dancing with the Stars
All My Children
Disney World
Celebrity Gossip Mags

I will add more later when I think of them!!

This will be my last post before the holiday!! Have a wonderful week!!!!!

What I watch is similar to what I write

I see distinct similarities between my favorite TV shows and what I write. Clearly the kind of shows I love to curl up in a blanket with are the same kind of story lines I enjoy writing. I am addicted to love and romance combined with drama and even some comedy from time to time. I enjoy taking a reader through every emotion and I enjoy that kind of experience myself. I'd be completely lying if I said I never cried and laughed during the same episode of a show I watch.

Some of my favorite shows of all time: Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives and All My Children. If Grey's Anatomy wouldn't have originally been on Sunday nights, I would have really gotten into that. (Just could not do two 1-hour shows on the same night...this was pre-DVR days. Someday I might watch them all on DVD.)

I love a character who is sassy and gets what she wants and stands up for herself and there are PLENTY of those type of characters on my shows. But I also find myself writing characters like myself: shy, unsure, not a ton of self esteem.

And of course, I do watch the occasional reality show...but I stay far away from the really stupid ones. I stick with Dancing with the Stars (I love to dance, in case you didn't know. I have been taking a jazz class for the last 10 years and have taken some ballroom classes too. I so wish I had unlimited funds to be able to continue...maybe even compete....Hey, do you think that a published author would be "star" enough for DWTS??? Hmmm....one more reason to work hard to get my books published....LOL!!) We got hooked on Celebrity Apprentice this year, first time show for us. And we really love Chopped on the Food Network. That is actually the channel we flip to first when it's late and we have nothing to watch but we're not ready for bed yet.