Challenge Day 5: My Guilty Pleasure

Is this a foray into that romantic novel thing I suggested? Most likely, not. I think my guiltiest pleasure besides re-watching The Office and Friends ad nauseam, is really just bad television. I had this obsession with America's Next Top Model for a year or so and the first round of VH1 reality shows like Celebrity Rehab, Flavor of Love and the spin off of that, I Love New York. Although maybe it is just TV and reruns all together because my major obsession in syndication was Beverly Hills, 90210. Man, did I just I love the ridiculous drama.

More ridiculous is that I actually have decent taste in most walks of life but those shows are like tabloid magazines, the gossip is just so fun! I never get into the shows as they are popular though, I'm always behind the times but then I'm all in!

I think I've always loved living through shows and movies. Anything I can relate to, I'm very into. Or, when there is good writing, satire, and witty banter I can't get enough. I have such a cynical sense of humor that often gets me into trouble, but it plays towards a wide array of different interests for entertainment.

I think any escape from reality or a dose of someone else's reality is just a good way to zone out from all of life's chaos. I'm a total binge-r when it comes to a good series.

Sex and The City made me want to stay single in New York and be a struggling writer. Weeds made me want to be a suburban house wife pot dealer. Six Feet Under made me want to be a funeral director and Big Love made having sister wives look totally appealing when I was an exhausted, lonely mom. Mad Men just made me want to drink in the day time and be Don Draper's mistress and House of Cards makes me want to stay away from politics always. X-Files made me want to go investigate all the weird things! These shows bring you from one season of life to the next and, with the right people, provide quite the experience.

My dad and I used to watch X-Files religiously together. My girl friends and I snuck a water bottle of Cosmopolitans into the movie theater to watch the Sex and the City movie because we had all watched them obsessively. We used to have Weeds parties every week to watch in our tiny apartment crammed with like 8 friends because we were the only ones with cable. Mad Men I watched while breastfeeding at 1AM, 4AM, and whenever.

It also brings things to the conversation if you are watching a show that is widely popular and the "it" show of the season. I think TV and movies will always be my guilty pleasure but I'm not so sure I'm feeling very guilty about it. My dad and I coined the phrase "vidiot," for a person who spends way too much time with television but also we both enjoy investing our time in movies and series on a regular basis.

For me TV is my wind-down and chill time. There's no thinking, you just sit and absorb. And going into another world when yours feels so heavy, is just such a nice release and stress reliever for me. There's also nothing better than cuddling up and watching something together. After working all day, working out, being a mom and such, it's often nice to just crawl into bed and watch a favorite thing or something new.

I will admit sometimes I get so involved in the series I forget they aren't real people or I have to watch as much as possible until I know all the things that have happened. That is my personality to a tee! I do believe there is a healthy versus unhealthy realm of all of it and it can easily be abused. I wouldn't want to miss out on real life stuff because of a movie or show. And becoming too much of a recluse into a fantasy world isn't good either. I think that guilty pleasures involve balance like anything else in life.

I often refer to that scene in Alice in Wonderland with the mushroom where too much makes you way too tall and you have to figure out how much to get the right fit. Oh, another guilty pleasure would be Disney movies. I can belt some Moana for real!

So enjoy your guilty pleasures, indulge but don't let them take over your reality! I don't actually want to be in Celebrity Rehab or on a show competing for love with Flava Flave. But it sure is fun to watch!