I watch a lot of TV these days...

I never thought I would follow shows.

Well, I never thought I would follow shows again.

I use to watch a lot of TV when I was little (0-17 years of age). I watched cartoons all the time. Channel 62 use to have the "Disney Afternoon" with shows that changed over the years from Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Quack Pack, Aladdin, Timon & Pumbaa, and Gargoyles.
Gargoyles, that was the first show I ever truly followed. I could not wait until the next episode and I became totally engrossed in the shows mythos. You have to understand that I was totally into various forms of mythology at the time, so these characters that seemed to walk out of some ancient myth and transplanted to the modern world were intoxicating to me.

Then I had to watch some of my grandparents shows. Jeopardy at 4:30pm, Local News at 5 (KCTV), and then more cartoons. We got to switch the channel to Nickelodeon (I did not have Cable growing up, I had an imagination and played outside more, hence the bizarre dude you now know...a double-edged warning for anybody pregnant or raising a child currently). That's when I met Doug Funny. An overly imaginative, hopeless romantic...a white, big-nosed version of me. I mean Quailman, Race Canyon, Durango Doug, Smash Adams...Doug could do anything in his head, while in real-life his anxieties kept him from being the hero he imagined being, at least until the end of the episode. Then at 6:00 was Rugrats. Who could have know babies would be so hilarious and adventurous?

Then I started going to church and I kinda stopped watching TV. I know it may sound cliche: "I found Jesus and then I didn't need TV anymore. Goodbye TV." But once I had friends that wanted to hang out with me, instead of just copying my homework, I was never home enough to watch TV. I was always hanging out with somebody, going to a concert (usually a hardcore one that I would go to with Dean and sit outside because I couldn't take it for very long).

In college, we didn't have TV at the Blue House or in my dorm room that one awful year.

Now, I'm a teacher and work all day, so I just come home and let my brain veg out to the television. And I love all of my shows, don't get me wrong, but when I hear my friends talk about the latest book they're reading, I quietly think to myself, I haven't read anything in forever, I watch TV.

My secret pleasures are:
- The new V
- Gossip Girl
- The Office
- The Vampire Diaries
- Flash Forward
- Grey's Anatomy
- The Real Housewives of Atlanta (now on hiatus)
- Criminal Minds
- Ugly Betty
- Family Guy