Teen Television Dramas

Call it inspiration from watching nothing but Veronica Mars while I was sick this weekend, but I've been thinking about the shows from my high school must-watch list. I never got into Gilmore Girls or Dawson's Creek, but I sure did love my teenage melodramas. And with that wonderfully little station The CW, formerly known as The WB, formerly known as WGN, gaining popularity, there were some great shows to pick from.

7th Heaven (1996, Freshman Year)

I think my mom liked this show more than I did, but I loved that even the kids had a major role in what happened in the house and in their lives. And because my family was religiously active, I connected to the moral dilemmas and challenges the family faced.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997, Sophomore Year)

In every way 7th Heaven reflected normal life, Buffy was an escape. It was a show about a bunch of misfits living a secret life as superheros. Who wouldn't love Buffy?

Felicity (1998, Junior Year)

During a year full of ACTs and college tours, this show made me want to apply to NYU and get a job as a barista. That is until I found out what kind of debt I'd have to go into to live in NYC and I can't make coffee worth crap. So instead I lived vicariously through Kari Russell.

Roswell (1999, Senior Year)

I'm not sure if I should hate the show that first introduced us to Katherine Heigl and killed off Colin Hanks. (Sorry, should I have said ***Spoiler Alert!***?) But ultimately, I loved the sci-fi series about growing up and moving on.

I guess that's why I still read and write books for teens. There's something about writing the things I wish I'd said in high school that makes me reflect more positively on those four years I couldn't wait to end. Now I wish I had taken a little more time to enjoy them. But that still doesn't mean you'll ever get me to watch Gossip Girl or The Vampire Diaries.

Stuck in the past

I've been watching all these TV shows from my childhood, and I have no idea why. It started with Doogie Howser, M.D. And now I'm on to Quantum Leap. Next it will be Twin Peaks.

I really need to get a new hobby like bike-riding or fencing.

Snow Bound

This snow is driving me crazy! Being cooped up in the house, you'd think I'd be productive and, I don't know, read one of the 50 books I have sitting next to my bed or finish my SCBWI WIP Grant application or get some homework done for my web design class. The least I could do is barrow a shovel and dig my car out of the two feet of snow it is buried under.


I made some progress, but then the bucket I was using shattered (yes, shattered) and I was left with no way to clear the snow. A walk to the store also proved futile as they were out of shovels.

But it's like in school when they tell you you have to read a book and it looks like a good book by an author you've liked in the past and you actually really wanted to read that book. But just because you now HAVE to read it, you have suddenly lost all desire to read it. That has been my life for the past week.

So instead I spent my time doing things like this:


baking Valentine's Day cookies to give to friends once the snow melts.


making cream cheese brownies for a movie night that gets cancelled because of the snow only to be forced to eat all the brownies with my roommate because it's really not the brownies' fault it snowed.


starting a new fashion trend of wearing boots from my good ol' college days in Idaho that I swore I would never wear again and pairing them with the same pair of jeans from yesterday because I really don't want to bother getting another pair of jeans all slushy.


watching episode after episode with the popular Australian television drama McLeod's Daughters on Netflix and seeing how many budding stars I can spot that now sport American accents on shows like Legend of the Seeker and Fringe.

Any ideas how I can waste time tomorrow and probably Wednesday as well? We're supposed to get another six inches, so Washington might be closed down for a few more days. At least I have internet access and can check my work email at home. So I have been able to get SOME work done.

My nose is cold and my feet are too

Was it really just Friday that I went outside without my coat and still felt plenty warm? I don't know what world I woke up thinking I lived in, but the skirt and high heels I donned really weren't made for the snow that greeting me when I opened my front door this morning. I just keep reminding myself that I could be in Salt Lake City (25 degrees) or Chicago (17 degrees) or Rexburg, ID (13 degrees). The best news is that it's supposed to be up in the 40's again by the weekend.

Because I haven't posted in almost a week and the week before that all my posts were inauguration related, there is so much I could post about. I could write about how annoying Rod Blagojevich is or outline my picks for the Oscars or I could give my reaction to the numerous TV shows that have started up again (Lost, Bones, Burn Notice, Battlestar Galactica). I could even respond to the ALA literary awards.

What then, you ask, am I going to post about on this cold day?

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

American Idol news, of course.

I know I'm a couple days behind the times posting about that. But I have a very good reason for not posting about the Joanna Pacitti Contraversy until now. I haven't written about it before now because I didn't know about it before now. I don't watch American Idol, nor do I listen to songs by former Idol contestants. In fact, the one season I actually watched the show, at the encouragement of my former-roommate Tammy who is totally obsessed with Idol, I was so devastated that Melinda Doolittle didn't win that I have never bothered watching the show again.

But now, I am breaking my vow of Idol-silence and saying WTF? For a show that scouts out undiscovered talent, they sure do know how to unearth has-beens-who-never-should've-beens. I have now listened to one of Pacitti's songs, and I hope never to have to listen to another one again. Her first record crashed and burned, not because it wasn't pushed by the record label, but because it was a horrible record. What makes her and the Idol producers think she has a chance of making it a second (or is that fifth?) time around?

I think this is just another way for the Death Star of prime-time TV to keep viewers coming back. I may be opinionated on this subject, but you still aren't suckering me into watch your show again, Simon Cowell!