The Real World = Lots of Great TV

Weeeeeeeeeeee're baaaaaaaaack. 

Because all good things must come to an end, our perfectly-balanced-between-fun-and-relaxing spring break is over.  I spent nine days getting my body to adjust to staying up late and sleeping in, just in time to have return to work, just in time to have to force myself to wake up early again.  Boo for waking up early.  The good news is that there are only forty-five more school days until summer.  That's really not a lot of days.

And birthday week/month is over; we ate the last vestiges of it tonight.  (PS--Here's a great gift idea. Sneak Fresh Market ribeyes into your friend's refrigerator when you are house and dog sitting.  Your friend will be forever grateful.  Muchas gracias, Cris!)  Year twenty-nine has been pretty great so far, I must say.  If the next fifty point five weeks are as lovely, I'll be a happy, happy girl.

We don't really have anything exciting happening anytime soon, but there is a certain comfort in returning to our routine.  And since we are admitted television addicts, our routine includes way too much of the tube.  Here's what we've been watching of late:

• Breaking Bad.  We (and by we I mean Matt) have been hearing about how great it is for some time, but hadn't gotten around to watching it.  Why is it so good?  In case you haven't heard of it before, here's the premise: unsatisfied high school chemistry teacher finds out that he has terminal cancer, and begins cooking crystal meth to be able to leave money for his family.  And it's got the dad from Malcolm in the Middle, only now he's an evil genius.
• American Idol.  Psych!  We stopped watching this season.  It just sucked too bad and I couldn't stomach Cara.
• Amazing Race.  This season's coming to a close, but it's been great fun.  Plus, three of the five remaining teams are ones we chose: cowboys, gay brother/straight brother, and the idiot models.  Every time we watch Matt curses the models for still being in the race, even though he picked them.  If only the Buffalo Bills could be as successful as the stupid models.
• Top Chef Masters.  This hasn't actually started yet, but it does tomorrow, and we'll be watching and loving every second. 
• Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  Hugh and Cassie recommended this show (and Christina was raving about it), and I think Hugh put it really well when he described it as being one of the best-edited shows on tv.  And Jamie Oliver is officially one of my favorite British people. 
• Jeopardy!.  Always.  We're watching it right now.  It's 1:28 a.m.  Matt is ranting about how he would have won this game.
• Lost.  I'm really  not that interested since I know what the numbers mean, and that's all I really cared about, but I watch it anyway.  Just looking for closure, I suppose.  Tonight's episode was pretty good.  I like how Desmond and Jamie Oliver always call people Brother.  It's so endearing. 
• 60 Minutes.  We're really, really old. 
• The Pacific.  Matt's watching this; I'm not.  I'm sure it's good and all, but all those army boys all look the same to me, and I have trouble figuring out who's who.  And, yes, I'm quite stupid.
• Treme.  I will be watching this one.  The guys from The Wire doing a show about post-Katrina New Orleans?  Yes, please.
• 500 Days of Summer.  It's not a tv show, but we just watched it last night and I loved every second.  A modern-day Annie Hall, if you will.  Charming and funny and bittersweet.  Plus, it had the girl from Elf!

And here's a hump day video to get you through the day: President Obama playing HORSE--I mean, POTUS--with Clark Kellog, who is good at basketball.  (Better at basketball than damn Kentucky, who is not as good at basketball as I thought.)

Goodbye, Johnny Castle.

When I was in the second grade, my friends and I would play a game we called "Roomies," a more mature variation of house. We would pick out our boyfriends/husbands--selected on a first-come, first-served basis--create a conflict ("Okay, now you just found out that your boyfriend is cheating, and. . ."), and then drama would ensue.

The most sought-after boyfriend/husband? Patrick Swayze. Yes, this was during the time when Dirty Dancing was at the height of its popularity, when it was on HBO approximately 17 times per day. It was around then that People chose him as the sexiest man alive, and my friends and I concurred. It was a bit of a fight to get Patrick as your man.

My friend Sloan, who in hindsight was a bit of a bitch, always managed to call him first. And in the event that I managed to call him first, she would tell me that I couldn't have him because she always had him. Why was I friends with that girl?

Sloan's bitchiness caused me to pick an alternate, a Mr. Tom Cruise. (Tom and I were actually an item up until a couple of years ago, when he really amped up the crazy, causing me to dump him.) While I realized that there were, indeed, other handsome fellows out there, Patrick Swayze always held a special place in my heart.

Johnny Castle was my real first crush. He was so sexy, and so vulnerable, and such a good dancer! When I was seven years old, most of the adult themes of Dirty Dancing--arguably the greatest film of ALL TIME--flew over my head. But I did know a few things: Johnny was SO hot, Baby was cool, Lisa and Robbie were stupid, Johnny wasn't the one who got Penny in trouble (even though I didn't completely grasp the enormity of "in trouble"), and dancing was awesome.

I wasn't actually allowed to watch Dirty Dancing. Pfffft. Yeah, okay. Like that would work. I think that during that period of my life I would only become friends with girls who had HBO, girls whose parents either didn't care what we watched, or were seldom home. I had to get my fix.

And get my fix I have. I've seen the movie approximately 752 times. I could recite it to you right now. I quote it almost daily. Dirty Dancing has become part of my psyche, though somehow I still lack the ability to dance. F-ing Baptist school!

Johnny Castle, in all his sexiness with jumping off stages and jumping over porch railings to beat up assholes, in his amazing singing, in the way he squinted his eyes and mouthed the words "and I owe it all to you" to Baby during the final dance number, was the first man I lusted after. He was like the wind, through my tree. . .

I, along every girl my age, will miss you Mr. Patrick Swayze.