contemplation over hot chocolate

I was never really a halloween person. I mean, I LOVE candy, but after I broke 8 (count them, 8!) brackets off my braces after a binge of Jolly Ranchers, life has never been the same. I never really got the fact of being another person for a day…granted, I beleive sometimes we all need a fresh start, but I can hardly figure out my current identity, let alone pretending to have another one for a night.  So for Halloween this year, I am being myself. Scary, I know.

And another thing that is truly American…we spend all this time telling our kids NOT to take candy from strangers…and yet here we are…

Ok. I am one of these people who absolutly loved high school. I wasn’t popular, but I knew everyone, which, in essence, made me popular…or well-know and well-liked. So when I left high school, I left a lot of good memories, but I was also done with it by the time I graduated college, saying I am glad those days are done…

Fast forward to this weekend, where I entered the high school again, this time via “Dog Park High”. Being the “new girl” in town didn’t help in this instance. It was the perfect high school set-up: the “popular” crowd hung out at the corner, pretending to own the joint…there were a couple, less-known dogs entertaining themselves over by the tree, and then there were the loners who just kinda sat there staring at everyone. And I was the new girl, just trying to fit in.

As I looked around the dog park, I was struck with the very memories of high school trauma and tribulation…except in this instance, I wanted nothing to do with the popular dogs, and made my way over to the “lesser known but still acknowledged if their dogs happened to play with each other” group. And it was nice. But then…the dog jock of the group came bolting towards me…a puppy, no less, but with no leash, and wouldn’t leave my dog alone…in fact, as we were trying to escape the harassment, the dog just kept jumping around…until finally Ollie had enough of it, which made him growl and snap at the puppy…this, of course, got the jock owner’s attention, who came up to me (now with Ollie in my hands) and said to Ollie, “Eh, you’re dog will be fine…he must’ve known you were a USC fan (speaking because of the collar Ollie has)…and then preceded to walk away, laughing the whole way back to his pack of wolves known as the popular group….but I digress…

Of course I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, and tell him that he shouldn’t let an untrained puppy unleashed, and that he could’ve come over sooner so I wouldn’t have to be the one to pick up my now-traumatized dog when his dog was the one bothering us…but I didn’t….because I am too nice for my own damn good.

So the lessons I have learned this week are:

1) I am too damn nice for my own good, and I need to start being a bitch.
2) High School will never end, so just accept it now.
3) Choose your battles, but make sure to fight.

Hey, sometimes my dog feels like the Yoda therapist in all of us….

1) Cheering for the football team that doesn’t just kick around a ball.
2) Singing the Star Spangled Banner…no matter where you are.
3) Sitting at Jury Duty wondering why you took a mediocre book to an 8-hour solitary confinement.

Ah, yes, Jury Duty. Completely all American, completely what they say it is…if you aren’t chosen, it is the LONGEST day of your life…next to getting asked out by your crush. It was my first time as a juror, and boy, was I nervous. Everytime that bat phone rang, it echoed through my ears into my thumping heart…would I be chosen to decide the fate of my fellow citizen? 

Alas, I wasn’t chosen…almost, for a trial I had read about that morning, but I didn’t get to spread my opinion into the Americana universe. No, I just spent the entire day playing solitaire on my Palm (I won twelve…count them…twelve times!) and was trying to get through a rather difficult, well-known book that was highly praised (The Time Travelers Wife, for all you who have read it…I am so confused). I had read InStyle and found out how correctly to identify my skin type, as well as cruised through a provided Rachel Ray (I will never cook like her), and learned how to make my house more “Nantucket” in Metropolitan Home, but I still wasn’t picked for a trial. I was all nervous about being on a trial, until we were introduced to a video telling us of our “civic” duty, narrated by none other than Lester Holt. Somehow, the process seemed less arboures with him at the helm.

But I did learn something that I never knew…America is the only country in the world who has a jury system. The only country where an accused fate sits in the hands of his fellow man. That made me kinda proud in a very patriotic, salute the flag kind of way. I was also witness to the fact that the world does not revolve around me…you read that right…the fact that, for one day, all these people come together to serve a law that was written so long ago, that all these people come from all walks of life, all in different parts in their life, some good, some bad, but all different and unique in their own way. All these people have jobs and families and drama and life…it just amazes me that when I think my job is tiring, or I think I am the only one going through a life crisis, to come to something as simple as the Jury Room and find out that I am not alone in this world, and vice-versa, the world, as we know it, does not revolve around me…surprising, I know, but true! It’s like when you are at the airport, people-watching, all these people are going somewhere, going to or coming back from, and there is so much emotion in such a little space that you just realize that you are one in a million person breathing today…living today…and it makes me just feel all warm and fuzzy inside…for as the saying goes, there is always someone with bigger problems than you, and somehow, knowing that, knowing that whatever life problems that seem so big at the time, the minute I was congregated with all these walks of life into one simple room, my problems didn’t seem so severe, and I couldn’t help but smile.

Until I realized I brought a bad book and still have 6 hours to go…

PUSHING DAISIES (ABC, Wednesdays, 7pm)
In the words of my sister, you will either love this show or think it is too weird for a primetime slot. I chose the former. I LOVE THIS SHOW. In the realm of reality tv and mediocre dramas, it is nice to know that people in Hollywood still have a creative streak in their ratings-induced veins. From the moment you step into this Moulin Rougemeets Tim Burton’s cheery subconscious, you know something special is happening here. It helps that its creator is a Heroesalumni, and it shows with its witty writing and fabulously unique characters.  Basic premise: a piemaker (yes, the first episode was named “Pie-lette”) discovers his unique ability to bring back to life a dead person for only a minute…just enough time to figure out how the poor sap was murdered…and then he sends them back to their former dead self. With the help of a detective (played by The Nine’sChi McBride), they are able to collect rewards for solving murder cases. All this changes though when the piemaker revives his childhood sweetheart from the dead and keeps her alive…but cannot touch her…which makes for tension-ridden scenes of innocent love (see the scene where they are sleeping together…touching hands through the wall…so cute), and also intrigues the mind with where this story will go. With the witty and quirky writing and the subtle but powerful acting ability of the main characters, I am looking forward to Wednesdays again.

BACK TO YOU (FOX, Wednesdays, 7pm)
The pilot was funny. The rest was not. There is only so many times you can kill a goldfish without going over the joke line.

LIFE (NBC, Wednesdays, 9pm)
Basic premise: a cop wrongly accused of a murder is acquitted and adjusts to life outside the bars as a detective. His partner is an alcoholic who is getting punished by her boss by being partners with the cop. And the cop got a sweet deal so he is living in the lap of luxury while trying to figure out who sent him to jail in the first place.  It’s a clever mix of zen-like cop stories with a great character study…which might make people think…which may not be what people want at 9pm on a Wednesday night. This type of style and writing really belongs on the “Characters Welcome” timeslot in between Monk and Psych, which, as luck would have it, was exactly where it was yesterday afternoon (USA I am assuming is owned by NBC).  I dont know if it will last against ABC’s new drama Dirty Sexy Money(havent reviewed yet) and CSI: NY(we love our Gary Sinise) but it is still TiVo-worthy.

Oh Thursdays, how I love thee. In the world since Seinfeld and Friends ruled the NBC Thursday lineup, it’s been a while since we have had such a productive Thursday nights. But they are back…this time on ABC (with a shout-out to that oh-so-funny 30 Rock)

UGLY BETTY (ABC, Thursdays, 7pm)
I was not a Betty-lover in the beginning. I thought it was a tad too over-dramatic, a tad too stereotypical, a tad too overdone. But I have been converted. Maybe its the complex character study of backstabbing with a conscious, or America Ferriera’s brilliant portrayal of UGLY Betty, but I have grown to love this show.  The second season is off with a shot, and the only thing I see as a future problem is the fact that there are a lot of storylines that don’t always intertwine, which might make the average Ugly Betty saying, Huh? But the major characters (see Betty, Vanessa Williams, guy from OC) mixed with the funny funny assistants, keep us laughing…which is probably good, considering the melodramatic but still lovable Grey’s Anatomy follows it.

GREY’S ANATOMY (ABC, Thursdays, 8pm)
Oh, Meredith and Derek, I am a little sick of your storyline. Oh Christina, show some emotion already. And Bailey, where is the wit we loved in season one through three. Yes, we have introduced some new characters (see Meredith Grey’s sister, that gal from Reunion) but the storylines remain their same dull self…Meredith and Derek are broken up…again…George and Izzie are admitting that all the tension in season three was ACTUALLY their real feelings (how did Izzie get over Denny so fast?)…Christina is still reeling from Burke’s departure (but he shows up in Bionic Woman, so watch that if you miss him)…and Alex is still Alex, but this time with facial hair and interns.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Grey’s. It is starting to become what ER was to me in ’97…but it will become like ER (after the days of George Clooney *sigh* and Noah Wyle) if they don’t introduce a new character or have another “Denny” or “Ferry Crash” storyline. It makes me nostolgic for Season 2…that sophomore season filled with Denny and McVet and McSteamy…oh, yeah for major tension and storywriting…but with Shondra Leavy now half-heartedly writing Private Practice, I only hope that Grey’s will pickup…but I’ll still be watching.

30 ROCK (NBC, Thursdays, 7:30pm)
Tina Fey has another winner with this comedy. Alec Baldwin is fabulous, and Jerry Seinfeld fell flat during this pilot. But it doesnt matter, cause Alec and Tina keep this show afloat. Watch it, live it, love it.

That’s the scoop for now. Looking forward to Viva Laughlin, Samantha Who? and Men In Trees.